A great-nephew of tobacco heiress Doris Duke was ordered by a federal judge to reimburse an Oregon man $2.2 million for allegedly stealing an unfinished book and movie draft from his house.
The decision is the most recent development in a story of intense animosity between the Duke family’s heirs and their collaborators, and it comes after protracted litigation in state and federal courts.
Duke, the world’s richest little girl who inherited over $50 million in the 1920s, is once again the subject of public attention due to this decision. Duke passed away in 1993 at the age of 80 following a life filled with romance, adventure, philanthropy, and some infamous dramas. His father created the American Tobacco Co., which produces Lucky Strike cigarettes.
Although he is not an heir, Lincoln City resident Randy Allen Thompson is the impetus behind a new phase in the tumultuous family history.
The mother of the twins, Walker P. Inman III and Georgia Inman, now 26, who are direct Duke heirs, was Thompson’s brief spouse.
The twins were Duke’s great-nephew and great-niece, as their father, Walker Inman Jr., was the son of Duke’s half-brother.
In court filings, Thompson stated that, with their mother’s consent, he hired a ghostwriter to assist him in writing a narrative about the twins’ turbulent upbringing at their father’s 10,000-square-foot Wyoming hilltop home.
The 2017 book and manuscript was dubbed Escape From the Hill by Thompson. Following their father’s death from a methadone overdose in 2010, it detailed the mother’s complex plot to remove the twins from the mansion using two ambulances.
Thompson claimed in a federal lawsuit filed in Eugene that Walker Inman III had taken his lone copy of the incomplete manuscript from his Lincoln City home’s art studio.
Following the dismissal of his previous charges by state and federal judges, Thompson filed the lawsuit on his own, without legal representation.
Thompson’s request and supporting documentation, according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai, adequately supported his claim that Walker Inman III was responsible for the transfer of his personal property. Inman did not reply.
The judge awarded Thompson $2 million in damages for the alleged theft of the manuscript and $200,000 for mental duress last Friday, effectively granting a default judgment.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Walker Inman III and his mother, Daisha Inman, expressed astonishment at the judge’s decision.
Although court documents by a number of local attorneys who represented him early in the case contradict that, Walker Inman III claimed he had not received any court notifications of the case.
Walker Inman III reportedly acquired a copy of the manuscript from a friend of Thompson’s who claimed to have discovered it in a Utah storage locker, according to the mother and son. They claimed to have paid for the shipping of the documentation box that the friend had supplied them.
According to Walker Inman III, the box had documents pertaining to his childhood and the ensuing custody dispute between him and his sister.
He answered, “This box is my life.” It was now mine.
“My son has never stolen or broken into anywhere,” Daisha Inman continued.
Daisha Inman, an Oregon native who now resides in Utah with her son, said that she was temporarily married to Thompson in 2003 and was unaware of the consequences when she signed a contract with him years later to share her life story.
The 60-year-old Thompson, who works as a commercial refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning engineer, did not respond to several phone calls or emails asking for his opinion. Following the divorce of the twins’ parents, he met Daisha Inman in Wyoming.
The twins’ father, who had become an orphan at an early age, had been fostered by Doris Duke. The twins’ trust funds received a portion of the family’s riches.
According to a 2013 Rolling Stone article that featured interviews with the twins and their mother, they were to inherit a total of $1 billion at the age of 21. They are now 26 years old.
Both the twins and their mother gave their own accounts of what they described as a nightmarish upbringing and alleged abuse by their father in the Rolling Stone article and in 2014 on theDr. Phil show.
MISSING FILE CABINET
Thompson reported to Lincoln City police that someone had broken into his art studio on Sept. 11, 2020.
A door had been forced open. The burglar had made off with a two-drawer antique filing cabinet but left other valuables including a safe and credit cards, according to the police report.
In his lawsuit, Thompson said the cabinet held the only copy of his book and movie manuscript plus some related contracts.
According to the suit, Thompson said Inman posted photos of the manuscript on Facebook in May 2022 and taunted him in emails indicating he had the manuscript and threatened to release unauthorized copies to others.
I have all the case files, Inman allegedly wrote in a May 5, 2022, email that Thompson filed in court.
Thompson also submitted statements from another man who said in a deposition that Walker Inman III had asked for his help to break into Thompson s home because Inman had certain personal items in the Lincoln City house.
Thompson also alleges in the suit that Inman further mistakenly photographs his hand holding the original one-of-a-kind stolen documents and shared the photo in an email he sent to Thompson in April 2022.
The lawsuit includes copies of multiple written notices that Thompson said he sent to Inman demanding the return of his property.
Every attempt to have Inman return stolen property was met with dilutional (sic) fabrications, storytelling, and claims the stolen property now belongs to him. It does not! Thompson wrote.
Also in the court record is a photo of a contract agreement that Thompson said he signed in March 2007 with Daisha Inman, which granted him rights to her personal story.
BRIEF MARRIAGE
Thompson s manuscript details Daisha Inman s fight to regain control of the twins after her divorce from their father and how Thompson joined the fight to save her children, according to the agreement and lawsuit.
Daisha Inman, now 64, was the fourth of Walker Inman Jr. s five wives. They divorced when the twins were 2.
She said she met Thompson at a restaurant in Wyoming and married him in a courthouse in Idaho Falls in 2003.
Their marriage lasted less than a year and a half, she said. She didn t realize that Thompson was a convicted sex offender at the time, she said.
Court records show Thompson had been convicted of indecent liberties, or unlawful sexual contact, with two minors in King County, Washington, in 1986.
Asked about the document she signed in 2007 to have Thompson write about her life, Daisha Inman said she didn t realize the implications of what she was doing.
We were naive, she said.
Randy Thompson, of Lincoln City, presented this photo of a March 2007 agreement he signed with Daisha Inman to tell the story of her life and reunification with her twin children, heirs of the Duke family fortune. Daisha Inman said she was “naive,” when she signed it.Court Exhibit
She said she owns the Lincoln City home where Thompson has lived for at least the last eight years and plans to go to court to try to evict him. She is listed as the owner on Lincoln County property records.
Utah-based attorney Justin D. Heideman, who said he represents Walker Inman III, said he never received paperwork on Thompson s latest lawsuit after a handful of local attorneys acting on his behalf in Oregon withdrew.
Court records that Thompson submitted to the court show Thompson repeatedly emailed messages to all lawyers listed in the case, including Heideman.
Several of the local lawyers, contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive, filed motions on behalf of Walker Inman III in late 2022 through November 2023 until withdrawing late last year.
A default judgment means the losing party didn t appear at scheduled hearings or respond to filings served in the case, according to Tung Yin, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor.
You can t avoid the results of a case by not showing up. Default judgment is the same as if the person had lost in front of a jury, Yin said.
Whether Thompson can collect on the judgment is a different matter.
First, he must determine whether Inman has the assets and money to satisfy the judgment and then must obtain a federal order, or writ of execution, to get the money, said Juliet Stumpf, who teaches civil procedure at Lewis & Clark Law School.
Neither of the Lewis & Clark professors is connected to the case. They were asked by The Oregonian/OregonLive to comment on the legal procedures involved.
In Thompson s case, the judge evaluated the documents and found Thompson supported his allegations and that may be harder to reverse, Stumpf said.
Still, she said. Just getting the money can be as complicated as getting the judgement in the first place.
And Walker Inman III also could appeal or submit a motion to have the judge reconsider his ruling, the legal analysts said.
Inman and his lawyer, Heideman, said they plan to ask the judge to overturn the default judgment.
Obviously we disagree, Heideman said. We will be moving to set it aside.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X@maxoregonian, or onLinkedIn.
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