The wife of late Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson blew through his money and abandoned him for a jaunt on Martha’s Vineyard as he succumbed to cancer, bombshell new court documents reveal.
Widow Lu-Shawn Thompson even forced the top prosecutor to rewrite his will on his deathbed because she didn’t want to share his dough with his family, Thompson’s mother, Clara, claims in a Brooklyn Surrogate Court filing.
“Indeed, recognizing Kenneth’s imminent demise, it appeared that her biggest concern was not the welfare of her dying husband, but rather, insuring that she was the recipient of his estate to the exclusion of any of his other family members,” the papers read.
The filing asks a surrogate court judge to demand that Lu-Shawn produce a prior copy of Thompson’s will, which Clara claims proves he planned to leave his mother money.
Thompson died from colorectal cancer on Oct. 9, 2016. His mother alleges that her son “found little solace and compassion in Lu-Shawn” as the cancer spread to his brain and the chemotherapy, pain medication, and anti-depressants he took left him delusional.
The court papers also accuse Thompson’s widow, who grew up in foster care, of having “no sense of a close and loving family.”
“These issues, most particularly, Lu-Shawn’s unbridled spending, created tremendous tension between the two of them, indeed, so much so, that in the last months of his life, Kenneth had stopped speaking with Lu-Shawn, began residing in a separate apartment in his home, had essentially cut her off financially, and communicated to me and other family members that he was seriously considering divorce,” the filing asserts.
The accusations were accompanied by an affidavit from Thompson’s sister, Catherine Adams Gaskin, who says that her brother admitted in a Aug. 4, 2016 text that he wanted a divorce.
“Cinda, I have to divorce Lu-Shawn. She’s making my situation worse,” the late DA allegedly wrote.
Then, just three days later, his wife took their children Kenny and Kennedy to Martha’s Vineyard for a three-week vacation, Gaskin says, forcing the dying man’s mother to nurse him.
When she returned, the two slept in separate bedrooms, she adds.
But less than two weeks before he died, he made Lu-Shawn and his children his sole benefactors.
“While the will refers to our mother and me at various places and in various capacities, it is clear that the entire estate, as a practical matter, is effectively going to Lu-Shawn,” Gaskin’s affidavit says. “I respectfully submit that that was not Ken’s intention.”
Thompson’s will, first revealed by The Post, left $750,000 to his wife and children.
Yet his mother and sister allege he owns additional millions that weren’t included in the will.
“Kenneth had always promised that he would take care of me financially, and make provisions for me in his will,” his mother, a retired NYPD officer, says. “Having watched me work tirelessly to take care of him and his siblings after his father and I divorced, Kenneth did not want me to ever worry about money in my later years.”
Neither Lu-Shawn nor Clara’s lawyers immediatley responded to requests for comment.
