Court freezes assets of Gary casino boss
By Tina Lam
Don Barden, owner of the Majestic Star Casino, listen during a renewal hearing in Indianapolis. | Doug McSchooler~For the Post-Tribune
The wife of the owner of the Majestic Star Casino in Gary has received a temporary restraining order protecting the couple’s assets while she seeks to have him declared incompetent.
The Detroit Free Press reported that a judge issued the order Friday.
Bella Marshall says in court papers that her 67-year-old husband Don Barden, a Detroit busnessman, is battling cancer that has spread to his brain. She also is seeking a legal separation.
Marshall said her husband “is most often incoherent and unable to act rationally with respect to financial and family matters.”
Barden spokeswoman Darci McConnell countered that Barden is “physically and mentally capable of managing his affairs.”.
Barden became the first African-American cable franchise owner in 1979 and was the first African American to own a Las Vegas casino in 2001. He has been named by Ebony magazine, the TBS cable network, Black Entertainment Television and Black Enterprise magazine as a top national business leader. He’s been showered with awards, most recently a lifetime achievement award from the Michigan Chronicle newspaper.
Barden’s Majestic Star casino company declared bankruptcy more than a year ago. Under reorganization plans yet to be approved, Barden could lose most or all of his ownership in the casinos. The company owns two casino boats in Gary, the Majestic Star and Majestic Star II; and the Fitzgerald’s casinos in Blackhawk, Colo., and Tunica, Miss. The casinos continue to operate while the company reorganizes.
Majestic Star filed suit against Barden and Barden Development last week for more than $2 million in taxes the company said it was forced to pay the State of Indiana and the Internal Revenue Service after Barden allegedly changed the firm’s tax status last year.
In September, Barden appeared before the Indiana Gaming Commission, which was deciding whether to renew the two Majestic Star licenses, and told commissioners the casinos would soon have new owners. He had a cane and looked wan, said Ed Feigenbaum, editor of the Indiana Gaming Insight newsletter.
“He didn’t look like the dynamic, charismatic Barden I’ve known,” he said.
He started Barden Cablevision in 1979 and built it into one of the nation’s biggest black-owned businesses, selling it in 1994 to Comcast. Barden has been known for throwing lavish parties.
During the Super Bowl in 2006 in Detroit, he hosted a three-day party that included singers Smokey Robinson, Little Richard and Chaka Khan.
Gannett News Service
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