Cher has returned to Los Angeles Superior Court with a new petition to place her 49-year-old son, Elijah Blue Allman, under a temporary conservatorship, alleging that his mental health and drug dependency have spiraled so far that he now sits in a locked psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire, facing felony charges in two counties and unable even to stand trial.
The filing, made earlier this week, paints a grim portrait of a man receiving $120,000 a year from his late father Gregg Allman's trust and burning through every dollar on drugs, luxury hotels, and limousine rides, while owing $200,000 in unpaid taxes, $18,000 to a drug dealer, and $50,000 from a single Airbnb stay. Cher, 79, asked the court to appoint fiduciary Jason Rubin as temporary conservator of her son's estate.
This is not Cher's first attempt. She filed a similar petition in December 2023, requesting herself as sole conservator. She dismissed it in September 2024 after reaching a private agreement with Allman. Whatever that agreement was, it did not hold.
Court documents obtained by PEOPLE describe Allman's life as having "significantly deteriorated" since the last petition. The filing states that he is "currently in custody in the State of New Hampshire in a locked psychiatric hospital in an attempt to restore him to competency to face criminal charges in two cases across two New Hampshire counties for: felony burglary criminal mischief, simple assault, criminal trespass and breach of bail, but that is just the current set of problems."
That last phrase, "but that is just the current set of problems", carries the weight of the whole case. The criminal charges are not the petition's main argument. They are the backdrop.
Cher's filing alleges Allman "has no concept of money," "is unable to manage his financial resources and is unable to withstand fraud or undue influence" due to "severe mental health and addiction issues." She describes a cycle that repeats with grim regularity: Allman receives his trust distribution, "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."
The documents go further. Cher alleges Allman "spends any money he gets immediately" on "drugs, expensive hotels and limousine transportation," has not paid "any income taxes," and owes $200,000 to the government. She says he owed $18,000 to "a drug dealer who tracked him down" and that she or others had to intervene "to avoid being harmed."
Stories like this remind us that wealth and fame offer no shield against the consequences of untreated addiction, a reality that plays out in tragic cases involving public figures with depressing frequency.
The petition catalogs a long trail of destruction. Cher alleges Allman has "been thrown out of a total of 18 hotels because he has made guests feel uncomfortable [by] screaming obscenities and acting erratically." She accuses him of "exhibiting hyper-sexual behavior" and acting "aggressively," and of causing "thousands of dollars in damages from cigarette burns in the rugs, beds, dressers, broken windows [and] walls."
One incident stands out. Cher's filing states that Allman "was found in the middle of traffic passed out in his car. Emergency services responded and transported him to the hospital, where he was administered Narcan." She also alleges he "caused grease fires while cooking after zoning out and forgetting that food was on the stove."
A recent Airbnb stay allegedly left Allman owing $50,000. The filing says that without friends and family "cleaning up the financial and physical messes he made at those residences, he would have even more judgments against him." He showed no "awareness of consequences for the damage he caused," the documents state.
Emergency situations involving individuals in crisis are all too common in recent headlines, and the question of what institutions can or should do about them never gets easier.
Allman was arrested twice in New Hampshire last month. His latest arrest occurred in Windham, N.H., in March. The Concord Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE at the time that he was taken into custody after allegedly causing a disturbance at an elite prep school in Concord.
He now faces charges of felony burglary, criminal mischief, simple assault, criminal trespass, and breach of bail. He is due in court for the Concord case on Monday, April 20, and for the Windham case on Wednesday, April 22. A hearing on Cher's new conservatorship petition is set for Friday, April 24.
The filing describes Allman as "gravely disabled" and argues that a conservatorship over his person, not just his estate, would be "appropriate" once he returns to California. For now, the petition focuses on his finances.
Devon Allman, Elijah's 53-year-old half-brother, wrote to the court supporting the petition. His statement does not read like a legal formality. Devon told the court that Elijah "is currently a danger to himself and unable to manage his life and any funds that would become available to him."
He described visiting Elijah in stark terms:
"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 also told the court he had been called upon "to negotiate with a heroin dealer for a five-figure sum of drug debts", a task he described as "very difficult." When a family member is negotiating with a heroin dealer on your behalf, the situation has long since passed the point where private agreements can hold.
Cases involving individuals whose behavior puts themselves or others in danger raise hard questions about the limits of personal autonomy and the obligations of the legal system.
Conservatorships carry heavy cultural baggage after the Britney Spears saga turned public opinion sharply against them. But the Allman case presents the other side of the argument, the case where a family watches someone destroy himself in real time and has no legal mechanism to intervene short of asking a court for control.
Cher's filing describes a man whose "situation has become dire on multiple fronts," whose mental health has "severely deteriorated," whose physical condition is "terrible," and whose "drug dependency is at its worst." The court documents state plainly: "Elijah has no ability to manage money, and any dollar he receives from his father's trust (his only source of income) is immediately squandered without regard for his liabilities or well-being."
The filing also notes that Allman's estranged wife, Marieangela King, ordered him to pay spousal support, and he did not appear in court. Unpaid obligations are stacking up alongside criminal charges.
PEOPLE requested comment from a representative for Cher. No response was reported. Allman himself has not been quoted in any of the available reporting.
Tragic outcomes involving people in crisis are not confined to any one world, they surface in workplaces, on highways, and in courtrooms across the country.
Three court dates now loom in a single week. Allman faces criminal proceedings in Concord on April 20 and in Windham on April 22. Two days later, on April 24, a Los Angeles judge will consider whether to grant Cher's request for a temporary conservator over his estate.
Several questions remain unanswered. The name of the psychiatric hospital holding Allman has not been disclosed. The two New Hampshire counties involved in his criminal cases have not been identified in public reporting. The terms of the private agreement that led Cher to drop her first petition in September 2024 remain unknown.
What is known is that a mother tried a private solution, watched it fail, and came back to court with a filing that reads less like a legal maneuver and more like a last resort. Cher described "a clear pattern in Elijah's behavior", one that ends, every time, with drugs, debt, or a hospital bed.
The system will now decide whether it can do what a family could not. If the answer is no, the pattern will repeat, and the next chapter may not include a courtroom at all.
