A former business partner of Stan Lee has been arrested on charges of elder abuse. TMZ reports that Keya Morgan was apprehended in Scottsdale, AZ a week after the Los Angeles County District Attorney issued a warrant on charges of abuse and fraud.
While Lee wasn't named in the charges, the timeline of the accusations match up to a time period when Lee and his family began distancing themselves from Morgan. The claims of abuse are from June 2018, a month before Lee filed a restraining order against Morgan. In that filing, Lee and his family alleged that Morgan mishandled the comic creator's money and physically abused him. At the time that the charges were announced, Morgan's attorney stated unequivocally that he believed his client to be innocent.
“My client stands firmly on his presumption of innocence," said attorney Alex Kessel. "We expect him to be completely exonerated of all charges. Mr. Morgan has never abused Mr. Stan Lee in any way.”
At the time of the order's filing, Morgan told TMZ that the accusations against him were false.
"This is a witchhunt by his daughter and her lawyer against me because she cannot stand the fact Stan likes me so much. I will 100% prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the allegations against me are false. The truth will come out," he said.
Morgan appeared to be the source behind earlier stories of abuse between Lee and his daughter. The duo dispelled rumors that there was intra-family misconduct in an interview with The Daily Beast last year.
"There really isn’t that much drama. As far as I’m concerned, we have a wonderful life," Lee said in an interview attempting to clear the air. “I’m pretty damn lucky… We have occasional spats. But I have occasional spats with everyone."
Stan Lee passed away in November of 2018 at the age of 95.
