Joe Frazier files suit against daughter

Jet, June 11, 2007 by Melody K. Hoffman

Years after he retired from boxing, former heavyweight champion Smokin' Joe Frazier is sparring again. Frazier recently filed a lawsuit against his daughter, Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde, in an attempt to get records for when she served as his attorney and business adviser from 1989-2004, according to legal papers filed in Pennsylvania state court.

The 63-year-old Frazier is asking the court to order his daughter to turn over all records and give an accounting of what money came in and went out during the time she served as his adviser.

Frazier's lawyers, who insist they are not accusing his daughter of any wrong-doing, just want to get a complete account of Frazier's assets. They also believe the boxer may be missing out on film royalties, product endorsement fees or other income perhaps promised in his old contracts.

"This is a story of the guy who is not living the lifestyle that you'd expect him to live ... not as a former champ of the world. So not only is he not getting what he owns, he doesn't even know what he's missing," Frazier's Delaware-based lawyer, Michael P. Kelly, explains to JET. "That's the sad part. We have to find out first what's out there. And you start with the most recent attorney, that was Jacqui, and we work our way back."

Frazier-Lyde, a lawyer who recently won a primary election for Philadelphia Municipal Court judge, followed in her father's footsteps and began boxing in 2000 at age 38, winning titles in three different weight classes. She has turned over some of the documents that are being sought, but hasn't fully accounted for the money she managed during those 15 years. Her lawyer, William Charles Dixon, told JET the lawsuit brought by Frazier is "baseless."

"The documents that he claims my client has has never left his gym," Dixon maintains. "She had an office in his gym. She's never taken her father's records. My client has done nothing wrong and her father is not getting good advice."