Bankruptcy

Did A Serial Killer “Conceal an Asset” By Not Listing Rights to His “Story” On His Chapter 7 Schedules?

The Louisiana (Baton Rouge) Chapter 7 Trustee apparently thinks so.

Here’s the backstory on Derrick Todd Lee, aka “The Baton Rouge Serial Killer” (I guess the acronymic and descriptive monikers well was running dry?).

On one of the bankruptcy law listservs I subscribe, one of our Louisiana colleagues mentioned that the convicted killer’s chapter 7 trustee this week filed what we call an “AP” — an “adversarial proceeding”– to revoke Lee’s discharge, and another AP claiming rights to the “story” of how the killer committed the crimes.

I think this is overreaching. We may morally and philosophically abhor allowing a convicted murderer to profit from his story — and frankly, I do (that’s the reasoning behind so-called “Son of Sam” laws that prohibit such activities and/or turn the profits over to victim restitution funds or other interests). But no story’s been written — so any funds from the sale of such a story have to be postpetition. If that’s the case, then they’re not part of the bankruptcy estate. And if that’s true, then the trustee has no right to those funds.

All that said, I haven’t read the complaints yet — so this is based purely on secondhand information and my own idle musings on a Tuesday morning. Still, one can’t deny that it’s a fascinating issue and that doesn’t always happen in Bankruptcy Law-land!

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