Aaron Hernandez’s ex-GF Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez accused of embezzling from his daughter's trust fund
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: The lawyer overseeing the trust Aaron Hernandez left behind for his 10-year-old daughter has appealed the court to remove the athlete's ex-fiance as the girl's conservator over suspicious spending. Attorney David Schwartz claimed in court documents that Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez's spending "merits scrutiny" after she requested $10,000 from the trust to cover 10-year-old Avielle's dance lessons, despite having received a huge sum already.
Jenkins-Hernandez receives about $150,000 per year - a total of about $832,040.83 since Hernandez's death by suicide in 2017, according to Daily Mail. Schwartz refused her access to the money and said the mother has had “$832,040.83 available to her since her appointment as conservator to pay for dance lessons.” The attorney also noted scores of suspicious withdrawals made by Jenkins-Hernandez from the trust and questioned if her purchases benefited Avielle. However, after Jenkins-Hernandez was denied the amount, she allegedly asked a judge to have Schwartz removed as a trustee.
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Hernandez was a star NFL player and tight end for New England Patriots before he was imprisoned for life in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Later, he killed himself by hanging using the prison bedsheets at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, MA. Attorney Robert O’Regan pointed to Jenkins-Hernandez’s spending habits including $36,858 spent on clothing, $39,347 for home goods, $25,577 in online shopping, and $11,792 in "self care" costs coming from gym memberships and visits to beauty salons, Daily Mail reported.
(Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
There was also $18,406,04 in “unexplained” ATM withdrawals and a $3720.00 payment made to Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. It's worth noting that Avielle is just 10 years old and not of college age. O'Regan's filing states, "Large amounts of money are spent… with little clear identification of how these disbursements benefit Avielle."
"I believe that [Jenkins-Hernandez] has been co-mingling the child's funds with her own," he added. "I believe that Ms. Jenkins-Hernandez's ongoing conflict, her almost five-year-long record of excessive expenditures, continuous violation of this court's decree … and her failure to file an inventory and up to date accounts all indicate that despite what might be her best intentions, Ms. Jenkins-Hernandez is not effectively performing her duties as conservator."
However, after Schwartz asked for her removal, Jenkins-Hernandez explained her spendings to the Boston Globe. "Since Aaron's death, my sole focus has been on raising and providing as stable a life for my children as possible," she said. "All monies I have spent have been with this singular focus in mind, and this will continue to be my focus going forward."
Meanwhile, Jenkins-Hernandez's lawyer Stephen Withers called Schwartz's accusations "much ado about nothing." "What Shayanna has done is focus on her children. Any allegation or insinuation that she's spending money inappropriately or for any other purpose is absolutely false."