Restraining order filed in Tennessee court
Danny Nozell, who has long managed Dolly Parton and represents She's Alive, LLC, filed a request for a restraining order and a subsequent jury trial in a Tennessee court late Tuesday afternoon. The filing targets Bryan Seaver, Parton's nephew, who ran Squadron Augmented Protection Services, LLC and served as her head of security until Nozell dismissed him on Sept. 15. That date fell about three weeks after Parton died on Aug. 25. It was Seaver who told the world about his aunt's death in an Instagram video.[S1]
Variety examined the full four-part court filing, which presents a version of Seaver that contrasts sharply with the respectful tone of the video announcing the death. According to the documents, Seaver called himself a mercenary and a killer in messages exchanged before and after Parton passed away, and warned he would meddle with her commercial ventures, Dollywood among them, unless he received adequate compensation. The filing further cites his assertions of a paramilitary history and states that he employs dozens of people equipped with military-grade weapons.[S1]
Alleged threats and workplace fallout
According to the filing from She's Alive's attorneys, Seaver began a campaign of threats, intimidation and coercion a few weeks before Parton died and continued it afterward, aiming at the company's personnel, counsel and business partners. The document says he vowed in writing to destroy the entire brand, threatened to undermine every business entity that helps operate Dollywood, and called himself an international arms dealer and mercenary. It also says he told Parton's entertainment attorney that he was not an entertainment person but a killer, and threatened to launch a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly's brand partnerships unless he was paid.[S1]
The request for the restraining order says the alleged threats have already caused the harm they were meant to cause. Parton's trusts and estates attorney withdrew after Seaver targeted her, according to the filing, while some She's Alive personnel resigned and others stopped reporting to the office out of fear of Seaver and his armed associates. The company and its related vendors have retained private security for personnel, including at their homes, and the filing describes ordinary operations giving way to an atmosphere of fear.[S1]
She's Alive is asking for prompt, limited relief while a full temporary injunction hearing is pending. The filing maintains that each day without such relief allows Seaver another opportunity to drive away a valued employee, attorney, licensee, brand collaborator or other key business contact, and that the campaign continues with escalating effects. The company argues it should not be forced to endure another resignation or another threat before securing protection. The papers also state that Seaver had spent roughly two decades working for his aunt overseeing her security.[S1]
Seaver disputes the portrayal
After news of the restraining order request surfaced, Seaver did not respond right away to Variety's inquiry for comment. However, he provided a statement Tuesday to TMZ, the outlet that broke the restraining order story, in which he characterized himself as a career soldier and military contractor handling arms deals for foreign governments, and also as a security professional and a killer. He maintained that nothing in the lawsuit constituted a threat, stood by most of his remarks, and described them as blunt private conversations with Nozell, someone he regarded as a friend, and as angry exchanges between two men in mourning.[S1]
In the alleged texts, Seaver says he has been turning down media requests even though he is now the biggest social media post in human history, apparently a reference to the death announcement video. The messages included in the paperwork show him saying he would destroy the entire brand if Dollywood business partners were not removed, that he would go to Billboard Magazine and undermine every Dollywood business partner entity he could conjure, and that he is not an entertainment person but a killer who sold 27 million dollars worth of ammunition and arms to the Haitian Police on the day Dolly died.[S1]
Other alleged texts describe a life of warfare and warn that everyone needs to be worried about what he might do. In one, Seaver is said to call himself vengeance for his people for the next 50 years, saying he owns only swords and guns, that his children have three houses to live in forever and that his wife owns everything, while all he has is animosity and memory. He is also said to vow to spend his remaining time undermining anyone who ever betrayed his family, to set up a podcast ruining Dolly's brand partnerships unless he is paid, and to warn that her money had better be bigger than what he can make elsewhere.[S1]
