Millionaire, 84, died fleeing Harris probate court Perry Whatley battles probate court to the end

When probate court threatened to take away his assets, Perry Whatley gave up and fled — and ultimately died far from his home

Prior to leaving Texas to flee his legal troubles, Perry Whatley expressed a desire to stay in Baytown. "I've lived in the same neighborhood for years," he said, months before his death in Arizona. Prior to leaving Texas to flee his legal troubles, Perry Whatley expressed a desire to stay in Baytown. "I've lived in the same neighborhood for years," he said, months before his death in Arizona. Photo: SHARÓN STEINMANN, CHRONICLE Photo: SHARÓN STEINMANN, CHRONICLE Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Millionaire, 84, died fleeing Harris probate court 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Perry ''Bit" Whatley, 84, a former Baytown refinery worker and lifelong Texan, spent his final days in self-imposed exile, a fugitive from a more than two-year-old fight with the state probate courts.

Whatley was living in Arizona when he died, but it was not where he wanted to be, away from his home, cut off from his family and his $2 million fortune.

It was an unlikely, but perhaps unavoidable, end for the retired machinist, a frugal man who had wisely invested his savings in Humble Oil, which became Exxon, then Exxon Mobil. The investment made him a millionaire nearly twice over, and yet for 20 years after his retirement he lived a simple life in a simple Baytown bungalow until last summer, when he fled the jurisdiction of Harris County Probate Court.

Whatley died Feb. 14 in a rental home in Tempe in the company of his longtime caregiver, Dawn Johnson Whatley, 63, whom he married in a bedside ceremony in January 2005. His wife was his sole heir.

The Whatleys, both seniors with serious health problems, abandoned their own home and went into hiding together last summer. They left to avoid a hearing and, later, orders issued by Probate Judge Mike Wood that declared Whatley incapacitated, took away control of his assets and could have forced him into a nursing home.

Perry Whatley's sad saga started out as a dispute between his niece and his new wife, two people who professed devotion to him and who also sought control over his fortune, his health care and his basic life decisions.

But the fight, taken to court in April 2005 by Whatley's niece, morphed quickly into a twisted legal free-for-all and a near-infamous example for critics who claim Texas probate courts have run amok. It also underscores how worries over a loved one — seemingly simple at first — can escalate into a costly and chaotic legal conflict.

It took decades for Whatley to make his money.

In less than two years, nearly $1.5 million has been spent on legal bills and court-authorized expenses for his probate case and related litigation, based on case documents.

And though Whatley is gone, the fight over what remains of his money is far from over.

To understand how the drama unfolded is to understand the fragile will of one old man and the determination of two women who loved him.

One is Jeannie Anderson, his niece from Baytown, his only brother's daughter, the person he turned to after his first wife died, the one he gave power of attorney over his complex financial portfolio. Whatley had no children of his own.

The other is Dawn Johnson, Perry Whatley's longtime housekeeper and caregiver, a twice-divorced grandmother who also helped his first wife and his mother-in-law, both now deceased. A few months after suffering a stroke in 2004, Whatley revoked his niece's power of attorney and turned increasingly to Johnson for advice.

In January 2005, the two married in a home ceremony presided over by an ordained Baptist minister. At the time, Whatley was bedbound by a hip injury, though later he graduated to a wheelchair.

Anderson wasn't invited.

When she heard about the wedding weeks later, it alarmed her. Anderson told the Houston Chronicle she didn't trust Johnson, who she believed had been trying to influence her uncle to give her gifts, including his own home.

In an interview last year, Whatley said he married because Dawn Johnson Whatley already was living with him as his caretaker and he ''was just used to being married." The two had known each other for a decade.

''She's always helped us," he said. ''She figured I needed help, and she helped."

Whatley said his niece, though well-meaning, was trying to control too much and wanted to move him to a nursing home.

Anderson said she worried her uncle was being manipulated and his money was being spent too quickly — more than $100,000 had been spent in a few months.

Dawn Johnson Whatley said she was simply paying for 24-hour care and for renovations that would make Perry Whatley more comfortable.

Whatley's niece decided to seek legal protection for her uncle. In April 2005, she asked the Harris County Probate Court to declare her uncle incapacitated and grant her legal guardianship. Such a declaration would strip her uncle of his basic rights and give a guardian control over his money.

Whatley's wife countered by saying no guardianship was necessary, but, if one should be imposed, she should be named.

That's when the once-simple life of Perry Whatley started to careen out of control, when his future and his fate became an official court case.

''It just goes down in the annals of probate history as one of those cases that just dumbfounded everyone," Anderson told the Chronicle.

Soon after the filing of the guardianship case, the Whatleys withdrew $500,000 from an annuity, incurring an early withdrawal penalty. They gave most of the money to their own newly hired attorneys to fight the guardianship. Those attorneys now say the costs for the fight have grown to nearly $1 million.

In Harris County Probate Court, Wood, who also claimed he was trying to protect Whatley as a disabled Harris County resident, eventually authorized payments of $360,000 from Whatley's money to four lawyers, three he appointed and one hired on behalf of Whatley's niece. They have not yet provided final accounting of how much of Whatley's money was spent.

The judge openly attacked opposing attorneys as unorthodox renegades who abused the system and instigated Whatley's disappearance. In one court appearance last summer, he said he might have to order Whatley into court "in chains" and that it would be the fault of Whatley's legal team.

However, Whatley's hired attorneys remain adamant in their claims that Wood prejudged their client — without ever meeting Perry Whatley — and demonstrated his bias in a series of comments and rulings that threatened Whatley's savings, his independence and his marriage.

Anderson has another view. She believes those hired attorneys ''raped my uncle of his estate."

Just a few months after the guardianship case began, Whatley's privately hired lawyers say they began to suspect that the court had already made up its mind — even before hearing Whatley's side.

The Whatleys left Texas for the first time on Sept. 13, 2005 — days before their originally scheduled hearing date. They apparently knew they were dodging the hearing but went to Boston anyway to seek special medical care for Whatley's diabetes.

Harris County officials alerted Massachusetts authorities; the Whatleys asked Massachusetts courts for help.

With the Whatleys still out of state, Wood, the probate judge, imposed a temporary guardianship on Sept. 29, 2005. He ruled that Whatley was incapacitated based mostly on a court-appointed physician's examination that concluded Whatley was impaired by dementia, diabetes, a broken hip and strokes.

Wood chose neither Whatley's niece nor his wife and instead appointed attorney Mylus J. ''Jimmy" Walker Jr. as guardian. Walker is a partner at Dinkins Kelly Lenox Lamb & Walker, one of the top-earning probate firms in Harris County probate court.

In court that day, Wood discussed the telephone conversation he'd had with a Massachusetts judge simultaneously reviewing the case.

According to transcripts, the Massachusetts judge told Wood that she had ''been advised she has no jurisdiction at all. But she said that it would be appropriate, she thought, for me to order the temporary guardian to take possession and custody of Mr. Whatley and bring him back to Harris County."

Still, neither judge had actually met Whatley.

Wood ordered Walker, the newly appointed guardian, to physically bring Whatley back to Texas.

With the Texas court order signed by Wood, Walker personally flew to Boston to retrieve Whatley and placed him in a Bellaire nursing home nearly 40 miles from Baytown.

At Walker's request, Wood ordered payment of nursing home bills of $5,000 a month and, at first, $10,000 a month for ''extra supervision," court records show. His wife initially was not told of his whereabouts, though Wood later approved monitored visits.

Anderson, his niece, moved him back to a Baytown nursing home, where she felt he thrived. Walker, though, continued to control her uncle's money as guardian of his estate.

In the meantime, Whatley's personal lawyers continued to do everything they could to stall or reverse Wood's decisions.

They appealed to federal court.

They repeatedly tried to get Wood recused for bias. They also challenged other judges assigned to hear the recusal motions against Wood. Most of those efforts were unsuccessful.

They even filed a complaint against Wood to the state judicial conduct commission in March 2006. ''The bottom line is that Mike Wood had no jurisdiction to bring this horror into this couple's life in their golden years," Susan Norman, one of Whatley's hired attorneys, wrote.

Norman herself was given a year's probation by the State Bar for professional misconduct in September after she used a client's credit card with permission but failed to promptly repay the debt.

In June 2006, the Whatley legal team had its first big victory. The 14th Court of Appeals issued an order in Whatley's favor, saying Wood's guardianship appointments were void because of the mishandling of one recusal petition, largely a paperwork error.

The decision stripped Whatley's niece and Walker of their authority. It also put hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payments in limbo.

The same day, Dawn Johnson Whatley drove her blue handicapped van to a Baytown nursing home to bring Perry ''Bit" Whatley back home.

Just after he was wheeled inside, Whatley declared he had no complaints about the nursing home but that he was grateful to be back in his own living room. He could eat home-cooked meals. Pet his cat. His brother could regularly visit.

The reprieve would not last.

Citing his own duty to protect Harris County's elderly and disabled, Wood scheduled another guardianship hearing. As the trial date approached, Wood insisted that the Whatleys be brought to court for him to question.

Whatley's lawyers resisted.

In an interview with the Chronicle held at a church last summer, Dawn Johnson Whatley said she had been deeply troubled by the judge's actions and words. Perry Whatley seemed confused but said he, too, was upset about the probate court.

Whatley said he preferred to be in Baytown. ''I'd rather live here. I've lived in the same neighborhood for years."

For a second time, the Whatleys left home. Neither process servers, nor appointees nor other family members could find them. For months, their lawyers refused to say where the Whatleys had gone.

''I have never in 35 years had lawyers say, 'I don't know where my clients are,' " Wood said in one courtroom confrontation.

Whatley's attorneys decided to personally sue the judge, his appointees and others in an attempt to freeze spending of Whatley's assets. The lawsuit accused the judge and others of fraud, conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duties and asked for $15 million in damages.

Wood has called the suit frivolous and insisted he should be granted judicial immunity.

On Oct. 16, back in a Texas probate court, Wood again declared Whatley incapacitated. The judge relied on evidence from a four-hour trial that included a doctor who had examined Whatley twice, a nurse, Whatley's niece and the guardian Wood had appointed, all of whom described Whatley as mentally and physically impaired.

For the first time, Wood also heard from Whatley himself.

In a written affidavit, the ex-Marine and Pearl Harbor survivor complained that the court's appointee had deprived him of access to his bank accounts, his annuities, his cash and even his Social Security and retirement checks.

''He has left me destitute," Whatley said.

Afterward, Wood reappointed Walker.

But Walker was unable to find Whatley. And because another judge froze most of Whatley's remaining assets as part of the civil suit, Walker lacked control over Whatley's money, though he did visit his empty home and change the locks.

Walker was among 11 attorneys present at a February hearing in the civil case in which one of Whatley's attorneys unexpectedly announced that the vortex of contention — Perry ''Bit" Whatley — had died.

And though the guardianship matter ends, legal challenges continue.

His niece just wishes it would stop. To her, it all seems meaningless with her uncle dead.

She fears ''Bit" Whatley spent his last days in confusion, likely wishing to go home to Texas. She's troubled that his wife did not call when Whatley lay dying. ''She gave no one in my family the opportunity to say goodbye to my uncle."

After two years of costly conflict, no one has won.

And an old man has died in Arizona more than 1,000 miles from home.

lise.olsen@chron.com