Frank Kameny’s March 3 burial was postponed, but his headstone and grave marker are now in place and are open for visitors at the cemetery, which is located at 18th Street and Potomac Avenue, S.E. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The man named by the late gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny as the main beneficiary of his estate has filed separate lawsuits against four of Kameny’s longtime friends and fellow activists, charging that they “wrongfully” removed property from Kameny’s house shortly after his death last October.

The lawsuits, which were filed in D.C. Superior Court on March 3 and March 5, came days after one of the men now named as a defendant, Bob Witeck, announced that a March 3 ceremony for the interment of Kameny’s ashes at Congressional Cemetery had been postponed in “deference” to Kameny’s estate.

“Timothy Lamont Clark, the Personal Representative of the Estate of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, filed Complaints for Writ of Replevin against Dr. Marvin Carter, Charles Francis, Richard Rosendall, and Robert ‘Bob’ Witeck in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Civil Division,” says a statement released by attorney Glen Ackerman, who is representing Clark and the Kameny estate.

“The Estate alleges that Messrs. Carter, Francis, Rosendall, and Witeck removed property belonging to the Estate of Dr. Kameny without authority or permission,” Ackerman says in the statement. “The Estate is seeking immediate recovery of the property wrongfully taken.”

Witeck and Rosendall said they had no immediate comment on the lawsuits. Rande Joiner, an attorney saying she represents Francis, said Francis also would have no comment. Carter did not respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.

U.S. Legal.com, a website specializing in legal issues, describes “Replevin” as an “action or writ issued to recover an item of personal property wrongfully taken.” It says it can be used as a legal remedy “in which a court requires a defendant to return specific goods to the plaintiff at the beginning of the action” while the case is awaiting trial.

The suits allege that some or all of the defendants improperly removed from Kameny’s house his personal papers; a U.S.  Army uniform of Kameny’s; a statue; “Gay is Good” pins; and “personal and historical photographs,” among other items.

The lawsuit also claims Francis is required to hand over to the estate the “posthumous certificate awarded to Franklin Edward Kameny by the American Astronomical Society on January 10, 2012.”

Francis said in a press release earlier this year that he traveled to Texas at the invitation of the astronomical society to accept the award on Kameny’s behalf.

The lawsuits say each of these items “belong to the Plaintiff and the Estate of Franklin Edward Kameny” and are of “unknown historical value and of a monetary value yet to be determined.”

Ackerman told the Blade that Francis, Witeck, Rosendall, and Carter removed the items from Kameny’s house in November.

Rosendall and Witeck told the Blade earlier this year that Clark, who was living in the house at the time, gave them permission to take the items to preserve them for safekeeping, with the intent of returning the items to the estate.

The two said Clark, who inherited Kameny’s house, told them he was about to have the house cleaned to prepare for placing it on the market for sale and was ready to dispose of many of the remaining items in the house as trash.

Rosendall told the Blade last week that he, Witeck, and Carter became alarmed that important papers and other items needed to preserve Kameny’s legacy were in danger of being discarded and lost. He said Clark had no objections to their temporarily taking possession of the items and allowed them access to the house.

Ackerman this week said Clark disputes that characterization of what happened. According to Ackerman, Clark says he never told Witeck, Francis, Rosendall, or Carter that he planned to throw away the items in question. Ackerman said Clark feels he was misled by the men into thinking they had the legal right to take the items from the house.

“At that time he didn’t understand the legal issues of all of this,” Ackerman said.

Activists helped Kameny in last years

Kameny’s will, which names Clark as Kameny’s personal representative for the estate, also names Clark as the sole beneficiary of Kameny’s house, car, and all other possessions except his papers, which Kameny bequeathed to the Library of Congress.

Activists who know Witeck, Francis, Carter, and Rosendall credit them with helping Kameny financially in the last years of his life. Carter, founder and executive director of the local charitable group Helping Our Brothers and Sisters (HOBS), arranged for the group to raise money to help Kameny pay his bills at a time when he was in financial need.

Francis founded the Kameny Papers Project, which arranged for the Library of Congress in 2007 to take possession of thousands of Kameny’s papers and documents that cover the gay rights leader’s work on behalf of LGBT equality over a 50-year period.

The project, under Francis’ and Witeck’s direction, raised more than $75,000 from donors to buy the papers from Kameny, giving him needed financial support, and donate them to the Library of Congress, where they are available to researchers.

Ackerman said he recognizes the contributions of the four men on Kameny’s behalf. But he said that he and Clark are legally obligated in probating Kameny’s will to keep an accurate inventory of all of Kameny’s property. All of the items taken from the house belong to Clark under the terms of Kameny’s will, Ackerman said.

He said Francis has declined to say why he has yet to deliver the Kameny papers he took from the house shortly after Kameny’s death to the Library of Congress.

“It’s almost six months since Dr. Kameny died,” Ackerman said. “What is it taking so long for him to give those papers to the Library of Congress?”

He said he was troubled to learn from Joiner, Francis’s lawyer,  that Francis and the others have agreed to return the items they took from the house but only if the estate issues a legal waiver releasing them from any liability associated with the estate or Clark.

Ackerman said the estate refuses to agree to such a waiver.

“Why do they want to be released from liability if they didn’t do anything wrong?” he said.

Interment delayed over gravesite ownership

The abrupt postponement of the March 3 interment ceremony for Kameny’s ashes at D.C.’s historic Congressional Cemetery startled many of the activists who knew Kameny and planned to attend.

Patrick Crowley, interim senior manager for Congressional Cemetery, said Witeck informed him on March 2, one day before the ceremony was to take place, that he and the other organizers of the event wanted to call it off.

“All I can say is there is a disagreement between the parties that own the plot and the estate of Mr. Kameny,” Crowley said.

Crowley said HOBS, operated by Carter, purchased the gravesite earlier this year.

Ackerman said HOBS along with Francis and Witeck announced plans for the burial service without consulting Clark or the Kameny estate. He said Clark, who has legal rights to the ashes and planned to take possession of them, was not informed in advance of the burial plans and was “completely excluded” from the entire process of obtaining a cemetery plot and planning the interment of the ashes.

When Clark asked about the ashes last year, he was told they already had been buried, Ackerman said Clark told him. Ackerman said he and Clark did not learn that the ashes had not been buried until last month, when he saw a press release about plans for the interment and a cemetery official told him the ashes were in an urn at the cemetery office.

With this as a backdrop, Ackerman said he informed the cemetery and Francis, Witeck, and Carter, through attorney Joiner that the estate would not allow the interment of the ashes to take place until HOBS signed over ownership of the cemetery plot to the estate.

The estate would pay HOBS for the plot and other burial related expenses, Ackerman said.

He said HOBS agreed to do this but informed him that the HOBS board could not make arrangements to approve the sale in time for the ceremony. Ackerman said the estate had no objections to holding the gravesite ceremony but it could not agree to the burial of the ashes until the estate gained legal ownership of the plot.

Reached by phone March 2, Witeck acknowledged that the interment ceremony was being postponed due to issues related to the Kameny estate, but he declined to provide further details on the reason for the postponement, including whether organizers didn’t want a ceremony if the ashes could not be interred.

Editor’s note: The law firm Ackerman Brown PLCC, of which Glen Ackerman is managing partner, represents the Washington Blade.