A filmmaker scammed at least $785,000 while making a documentary about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder — and showed up so drunk for a panel discussion on the USS Intrepid that he cursed out the guests and stormed off, a new lawsuit claims.
Michael King also allegedly grabbed a female executive producer and got tossed out of the famed Sardi’s restaurant “because he was too intoxicated” during a party celebrating his movie “When War Comes Home” last year.
The suit filed by filed by the producer, Jennifer Harris, and two other plaintiffs seeks $2 million-plus in damages from King on grounds including breach of contract, unjust enrichment and civil theft.
Harris, Debra Hyde and Laurence Smith, all of whom live in Connecticut, say they raised more than $1.7 million to finance King’s film, which had its red-carpet, world premiere at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Oct. 24.
But while the project was set up as a not-for-profit effort financed through the International Documentary Association, King allegedly steered more than $66,000 from its IDA account to screenwriter Richard Friedenberg to draft a script for a for-profit feature film “in flagrant violation of…the IDA regulations.”
Friedenberg wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for 1992’s “A River Runs Through It,” starring Brad Pitt, and King is developing a movie written by Friedenberg titled “Awake in the Dark,” according to King’s Web site.
That film “follows a soldier’s long journey home with post traumatic stress,” the site says.
King’s site also touts his 1999 Emmy for the youth-violence TV documentary “Bangin,’” but neglects to mention it was a local Boston/New England award.
Other money King allegedly “defrauded and outright stole” includes “a ‘salary’ of well over $500,000” he paid himself and $60,000 he paid his wife, co-defendant Bernadette King, between May and September 2013 — even though she was “at an inpatient rehabilitation facility for much of that time,” court papers say.
He also blew another $80,000-plus on such personal expenses as a family vacation to New York City, luxury hotel rooms, ATM cash withdrawals, restaurant meals and car detailing, court papers say.
The suit against King, which was transferred last week to federal court in New Haven, Conn., says he got the idea for “When War Comes Home” in 2012, after meeting Hyde, whose brother, Vietnam War medic Charles Coleman, wrote a 1980 novel about the effects of PTSD titled “Sergeant Back Again.”
King asked for a copy of the book, and the plaintiffs later agreed to help finance his film, with Smith kicking in the first $150,000 and Harris donating $200,000, court papers say.
Their suit says King has “refused to screen or publicize the film,” or provide the plaintiffs with a finished version so they can “raise awareness and attention to a debilitating disease impacting thousands of Unites States Armed Services veterans.”
“We offered not to file the lawsuit simply for the movie back, but he wants money from us beyond what he’s already pilfered,” said their lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman.
“We just want to help the veterans out, that’s what this is all about.”
King’s lawyer, Jonathan Klein, would only say “that there are two sides to every story.”
Friedenberg’s agent declined to comment.
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