Video After The Jump
Miami Beach's newest socialite, Conchita, lives in an $8.3 million Sunset Island mansion, owns a Cartier diamond necklace and has a $3 million trust fund to support a lifestyle of designer duds, massages and pedicures.
What makes Conchita different from other Miami Beach socialites: She's a Chihuahua. Conchita came into her wealth upon the March death of her owner socialite Gail Posner, the daughter of late corporate raider Victor Posner.
Whether Conchita keeps her millions will be decided in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, where Gail Posner's only living child, son Bret Carr, launched a legal battle this month over his mother's estate. Carr claims his mother was manipulated into changing her will in 2008, leaving millions to her dogs and hired help.
``She never would have done that unless she was under extreme influence,'' said Carr, 46, who has a video shot on his iPhone of a visit with his mother in late 2008 where she claimed her staff was trying to ``kidnap and kill me.'' In the video, Posner also asks her son to ``get me out of here.''
The battle of Bret vs. Conchita and the hired help is just the latest window into the eccentricities of the Posner family. It was only eight years ago that Gail Posner and other family members were enmeshed in a similar court fight upon the death of Victor Posner.
Gail Posner's will and trust gives her three dogs -- Conchita, April Maria and Lucia -- the right to live in the two-story Sunset Island mansion until they die.
She also left $27 million to her maids, bodyguards and personal trainer, plus the right for some of them to live rent free in the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in exchange for taking care of the dogs. Bret Posner got only $1 million. The remainder of the estate goes to charities.
Posner is certainly not the first to leave at least a portion of her fortune to her pets. The case has similarities to Leona Helmsley, who left a $12 million trust fund to her Maltese that was later reduced by a judge to $2 million.
Carr sees his mother's fascination with her dogs as a sign of a deeply troubled woman, who was the victim of childhood incest and spent her life battling addictions to drugs and alcohol. Carr held his mother in her arms as she died at 67 of cancer, which had spread throughout her body.
``By protecting and pampering those dogs, she was really trying to pamper the little girl inside of her that was abused by Victor and never found safety in her own home,'' said Carr, a Hollywood filmmaker, who divides his time between South Florida and California. ``That frailty was leveraged by her staff. They exacerbated her paranoia and tendency to be in a delusional world.''
Court documents describe Gail Posner as a ``deeply disturbed recluse with serious emotional and psychological problems stemming from her history of having been sexually abused by Victor, (her daughter) Tina's suicide, and her lifelong mental health imbalances and alcohol and substance abuse.''
Posner in 2007 had hired a publicist for Conchita, who she billed as the world's most spoiled dog. Gail Posner told The Miami Herald in 2007 about Conchita's $12,000 summer wardrobe and a $15,000 Cartier necklace that the Chihuahua refused to wear after choking on it.
``Conchita is the only girl I know who doesn't consider diamonds her best friend,'' Posner told The Miami Herald.
Gail Posner lived her whole life under the manipulation and shadow of her father, whose hard-charging business personality extended into his personal life. But in death, Gail may have turned out more like her father than anyone could have imagined.
``She took on her father's identity and got similar results,'' Carr said.
Just like her father, there are allegations that as Gail's health deteriorated she was ``imprisoned'' in her house and cut off from her family. She also changed her will shortly before her death, giving away much of her fortune to others and slighting her family. Carr alleges she wasn't mentally capable of drafting that will and was ``blackmailed'' by her employees.
It will be up to the courts to decide if Gail Posner knew what she was doing when she signed that will and no one who stood to gain from the will exerted ``undue influence'' on her, said Carl Westman, a trusts and estate planning attorney with GrayRobinson in Naples.
Other attorneys say key evidence could be video of Gail Posner signing the new will or independent third-party witnesses.
``Especially when you're talking about people with a lot of money and notoriety, who are going to disinherit family members, any attorney is going to take a lot of precautions to make sure the estate is not overturned,'' said David Kron, a Fort Lauderdale trusts and estate planning attorney with Ruden McClosky.
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