ATLANTA — Soul music legend Gladys Knight has won her bid to sever all ties with her son’s troubled chicken and waffle business, according to a recent settlement filed in Clayton County Court in Georgia.
Shanga Hankerson must phase out all uses of Knight’s name, likeness and memorabilia from the downtown Atlanta restaurant formerly known as Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles, according tothe agreement, which was signed Monday. The deadline is April 26.
Knight can use her name on a new restaurant if she wishes to do so, which is a “distinct possibility,” her attorney Chris Bussert, said Friday afternoon.
“She’s out of litigation and has her name and intellectual property back,” Bussert said. “What’s not to like about that?”
Hankerson’s attorney, Dana Tucker Davis, declined comment.
If Hankerson flunks another health inspection, bounces checks, gets sued, disparages Knight, pleads guilty to a felony, or breaks other terms of the agreement before the April deadline, he must remove the Empress of Soul’s intellectual property immediately.
Hankerson, 40, launched the restaurant's first location with Knight's help in 1999. State tax agents raided the downtown Atlanta location and seized all three locations last June. Hankerson was arrested on felony counts of theft by taking after racking up what investigators said was $1 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. The criminal and civil forfeiture cases are continuing.
Witnesses told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he spent his money on marijuana and sex as the restaurant sank.
During the months-long legal battle, Hankerson said in court filings that his mother lacked the "mental capacity" to decide to take her name from the restaurant. Knight fired back that Hankerson was trying to "extort" her by damaging her reputation.
The restaurant's two other locations -- one in Atlanta and another in Lithonia, Georgia, have since closed, and the downtown Atlanta eatery is in disrepair. It repeatedly flunked health inspections -- most recently on Feb. 13 over broken toilets and a "mold-like growth" on two boxes of cream cheese. It was closed again ten days later.
It is now called The World Famous Chicken & Waffles.
Cox Media Group
