PORTSMOUTH — A series of dates was scheduled by the Rockingham County Superior Court to hear evidence in a case involving a police officer's disputed inheritance, with the earliest deadline being next fall.

PORTSMOUTH — A series of dates was scheduled by the Rockingham County Superior Court to hear evidence in a case involving a police officer's disputed inheritance, with the earliest deadline being next fall.



The legal dispute involves the estate of the late Geraldine Webber of Portsmouth, who died Dec. 11, 2012, at age 93, leaving her riverfront home, stocks, bonds and a Cadillac to Portsmouth Police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin. Multiple parties have challenged Webber's last will and trust, alleging she was unduly influenced by Goodwin and suffered from dementia when she endorsed the new estate plans.



The earliest date scheduled by the court is Sept. 1, 2014, as the deadline for all challengers to Webber's last will and trust to disclose lists of their expert witnesses. Goodwin and Hampton-based attorney Gary Holmes have until Oct. 15, 2014, to notify the court of their expert witnesses.



All parties have a Dec. 15, 2014, deadline to file interrogatories and exchange witness lists.



The court also scheduled a Jan. 12, 2015, date for a final pretrial hearing and noted a trial would resume after Feb. 1, 2015. The trial is expected to last five days, and all parties have three days after the trial ends to file memos of law with the court.



Eight lawyers have filed appearances in the case, including Assistant Attorney General Anne Edwards, interim head of the Attorney General's Charitable Trust Division.



Last week, attorney Ralph Holmes said all parties agreed to accommodate a yearlong sabbatical he has planned, which is delaying the case. Ralph Holmes is representing Gary Holmes, who drafted Webber's disputed will and trust in 2012.



Portsmouth City Attorney Robert Sullivan is representing the Portsmouth Police and Fire departments, which, by terms of Webber's 2009 will, were each designated to receive one-quarter of Webber's estate after the sale of her home and assets. In the will and trust Webber endorsed through Gary Holmes in 2012, the public safety departments are each named as $25,000 beneficiaries.



Attorney Chuck Doleac is representing Goodwin, who has denied all allegations against him. Goodwin said in a motion to the court that he merely gave Webber a business card for Gary Holmes, and Webber changed her estate plans on her own.



Webber's disabled grandson and only living heir was excluded from the 2012 will and trust and is represented by attorney Lisa Bellanti.



Manchester attorney David Eby represents the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Society and the Shriners Hospitals for Children. His clients were each $500,000 beneficiaries under the 2009 will, then named $80,000 beneficiaries under the 2012 estate plans.



Eby alleges Goodwin befriended Webber, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2010, before helping her visit "more than one attorney for the purpose of changing her estate plan."



"The attorneys declined to draft a new estate plan," Eby wrote in court motions. "The petitioners believe, and discovery will bear this out, that these attorneys refused to draft new estate planning documents because each had serious concerns about Ms. Webber's capacity and/or that she was being unduly influenced to sign a new estate plan."



Attorney Paul McEachern, who is representing several of Webber's former friends in the case, has called the estate dispute "a matter of official corruption" and successfully argued for the case to be heard in public, over Ralph Holmes' contrary request.