After being found liable in the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of the late Whitney Houston and former New Edition singer Bobby Brown, Nick Gordon has been ordered by a judge to pay $36 million to her estate in response to the wrongful death civil suit filed against him by surviving members of her family.
Gordon, after failing to show up in court two times, was found legally accountable for the 22-year-old’s death in September of this year. Brown was found unconscious on December 31, 2014, in a bathtub of the home she shared with Gordon, who was her boyfriend at the time. Though she remained in an Atlanta, Georgia hospice facility in a coma for months, she never awoke and was pronounced dead on July 26, 2015.
Troubling details began to emerge prior to the young woman’s death, most of which involved Gordon’s suspected involvement, though as of today, he has not been criminally charged in conjunction with her passing. Having expressed her constant worries of dying in the same manner as her mother, who was also found unconscious in a bathtub before her reported death, her deepest fear became her tragic, heartbreaking reality.
Like her mother, toxicology reports indicated the presence of illegal narcotics and alcohol in her system, with the autopsy report concluding Bobbi Kristina died as a result of pneumonia and brain damage caused by intoxication and immersion in water. It has been widely reported Brown and Gordon had an intense fight on that fateful night, with speculative accounts Gordon was in the midst of a cocaine and alcohol-induced rage.
Not surprisingly, Gordon was also a no-show at Thursday’s hearing, where Brown’s father Bobby tearfully testified his daughter was a loving and talented entertainer with unlimited earning potential. Among the charges listed in the wrongful death suit, Gordon was accused of assault, providing Brown with the “toxic cocktail” that led to her untimely death, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and transferring money from her account to his before she died.
Thursday’s hearing saw Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford render the amount of monetary damages owed to the estate by Gordon, which includes any and all of Gordon’s future earnings; whether or not the Brown family will see a dime of it remains to be seen. Mr. Gordon has completely and consistently distanced himself from the proceedings, leaving many to question his purported devastation over Brown’s death, whom he once considered a sister prior to becoming her lover (much to the dismay of her family; Gordon had previously spent most of his youth with Brown under the care of Ms. Houston, who publicly declared she viewed him as her son.)
Speaking to the press, Brown’s father expressed his satisfaction with Bedford’s ruling, stating, “I am pleased with the outcome of today’s court proceedings. I do know that Mr. Gordon will be unable to slander my daughter’s name in the future or obtain any benefits from the use of Krissy’s name.” He also pressed law enforcement officials to move forward with criminal charges against Gordon, saying, “The delay in that matter is of great concern to me and my family. We need for District Attorney Howard to act now.”
Upon her death, Bobbi Kristina was laid to rest in New Jersey next to her beloved mother. As Houston once sang, in which a young Bobbi Kristina can be heard telling Whitney to ‘sing, mommy’: “Your love is my love, and my love is your love. It would take an eternity to break us.”
Hopefully, this recognition by the courts of Gordon’s probable involvement in Bobbi Kristina’s death will offer peace to both her surviving family members, as well as her mother and herself, wherever they may rest.
May eternity never break them.
Sources:
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s Death: Nick Gordon Ordered to Pay $36 Million
Nick Gordon Ordered to Pay $36 Mil
Judge Orders Nick Gordon to Pay $36 Million to Bobbi Kristina’s Family
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