"I understand that he may be held in New Hampshire up to a year and a half," the judge weighing Cher's conservatorship bid said Thursday

Cher’s effort to place her son Elijah Blue Allman under a California conservatorship faced new hurdles Thursday when the rock heir appeared by video from a locked psychiatric facility in New Hampshire without a lawyer, and the judge separately questioned whether she had jurisdiction over the case.

Cher has been fighting to put guardrails on her son’s finances for years, claiming Allman, her only child with late Allman Brothers legend Gregg Allman, has “severe mental health and substance abuse issues” and can’t be trusted with the $10,000 a month he receives from his late father’s estate. Judge Jessica A. Uzcategui denied Cher’s latest request for an emergency conservatorship in April, saying she saw no urgency given that Allman was locked up following back-to-back arrests in New Hampshire earlier this year.

At Thursday’s hearing, Allman appeared on screen from his hospital, seated in a chair beside a bookcase. He was wearing a pink T-shirt with sunglasses tucked into the collar and told the court he wanted to represent himself. Uzcategui shot that down, telling him he was required to have a lawyer. She said his lack of representation meant she had to postpone the case until Sept. 1.

Then came an even bigger problem. The judge told Cher’s attorney, Justin Gold, that she was questioning whether Los Angeles County was the right venue for the matter since Allman disputes his mother’s claim that California is his legal home.

“In the court investigator report, Mr. Allman has expressed no intention to return to California even once he’s released from the New Hampshire hospital. And I understand that he may be held in New Hampshire up to a year and a half, and even then would be returned to a jail facility in New Hampshire or a treatment facility in New Hampshire,” the judge said. “So under all of these circumstances, it doesn’t appear to me that Mr. Allman will be back in California for quite some time, if ever, and I questioned the court’s jurisdiction.”

Gold pushed back hard. “The stated preference for Mr. Allman is being made while he’s incarcerated in a mental institution, and he does not have capacity,” he argued. “The only reason he’s in New Hampshire right now is because he can’t leave. And for him to now say, ‘Oh, I’m not coming back to California,’ just to avoid jurisdiction here, that’s all this would be. His whole life is here.”

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The judge ordered Gold to file a legal brief on the jurisdiction question by July 16 and warned Allman that if he appeared at the next hearing without an attorney, she would appoint one for him.

Allman’s troubles began spilling into headlines again earlier this year. According to a bail order obtained by Rolling Stone, he was arrested Feb. 27 at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, on suspicion of trespassing, criminal threats, and simple assault. He allegedly slipped onto the prep school campus, claiming to be a prospective parent, turned belligerent, and poked a student with his cane.

After he was booked and released for the school incident, he was arrested two days later on a burglary charge in Windham, New Hampshire, when a woman called police saying she was “hiding in a closet” because someone had broken into her home. Officers arrived to find a shattered glass door and Allman “seated on the living room couch smoking a cigarette,” according to a police affidavit obtained by Rolling Stone.

Cher’s court documents paint a bleak picture of how Allman, 49, allegedly blows through his $120,000 annual trust distributions. Once a payment lands, it is “immediately squandered without regard for his liabilities or well-being,” Cher’s filings say. Since 2024, she claims, he has been “living wildly beyond his means,” bouncing between “expensive hotels he cannot afford” and short-term rentals, allegedly causing more than $50,000 in damage to one Airbnb and purportedly racking up an $18,000 tab with a drug dealer.

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“There is a clear pattern in Elijah’s behavior,” Cher alleges in court documents. “After he receives his trust distribution, he checks into a hotel, usually the Chateau Marmont, buys and does drugs until he runs out of money, ends up in the hospital, or overdoses. Based on this pattern, if Elijah were to receive his trust distribution, he will use it to buy drugs.”

His brother Devon Allman filed a declaration backing the conservatorship request. “It is my opinion that he is currently a danger to himself and unable to manage his life, and any funds that would become available to him,” Devon wrote. “My recent visit to check in on him brought me unfortunate and profound sadness that took weeks of my life to process. His condition, both physical and mental, was appalling and delusional, respectively.”

Devon said he was previously forced to “negotiate with a heroin dealer for a five-figure sum of drug debts” on his brother’s behalf. “I strongly urge that Elijah be kept away from money until he has demonstrated a commitment to invest in his long-term physical and mental health,” he wrote.

Cher first sought a conservatorship in 2023, claiming Allman “urgently needed” protection amid a downward spiral of substance abuse and mental health woes. The same judge declined to grant her emergency control over his trust payments, and as the case headed toward a detailed evidentiary hearing, the parties reached a private settlement in September 2024.

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When Cher revived her petition in April, she claimed Allman had failed to live up to his promise to hire a business manager and that his life has been derailed again by ongoing substance abuse and mental health issues. This time around, Cher isn’t asking to be named her son’s conservator herself — she’s asking the court to appoint Jason Rubin, a licensed private fiduciary.

At a hearing in April, Gold defended Cher’s efforts to have the court system intervene in her son’s life. “She’s out here trying to help him, trying to make sure he’s in a position to become the person who she knows and loves,” Gold said. “And the same with his brother and the rest of the family, who are all so sad about what’s happening.”