Attorney for Manhattan Heiress Huguette Clark Responds to Critics

(Sept. 8) -- The attorney for a reclusive 104-year-old heiress is fighting a request for a restraining order filed by her family members, who want Huguette Clark's counsel and financial adviser kept from contacting her.

"There simply is no basis in fact or in law for the granting of any temporary restraining order," Clark's New York attorney, Wallace "Wally" Bock, wrote in his court filing.

"Petitioners are nothing more than officious interlopers, all three of whom are virtual strangers to Ms. Clark, and with whom Ms. Clark has knowingly and assiduously avoided contact for decades," Bock said.

Bock, 78, filed his response Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. It comes less than a week after two nieces and a nephew of the heiress asked the court to intervene on their behalf. They want to temporarily bar Bock and certified public accountant Irving Kamsler from visiting Clark or managing her fortune, which is estimated at $500 million.

Huguette Clark Gower is seen in this Aug. 11, 1930 file photo.

Huguette Clark, daughter of copper magnate and Sen. William A. Clark of Montana, is shown in a 1930 photo.

Kamsler has a prior criminal record consisting of a 2008 conviction for attempting to distribute indecent material to teenage girls online. As a result of the conviction, he is a registered sex offender in New York, MSNBC.com reported.

The family members have also asked the court to appoint a guardian to oversee Clark's personal and financial affairs, to "protect Ms. Clark's person and property, and to prevent the risk of further improper influence by Ms. Clark's advisers," the court filing says.

Clark is the sole surviving child of the late Sen. William Andrews Clark of Montana, who made his immense fortune in copper mining. In addition to a valuable art collection, she is the owner of a 23-acre oceanfront property in Santa Barbara, Calif., as well as properties in Connecticut and New York City.

For the past 20 years, Clark has lived at Beth Israel Medical Center. According to family members, she had not visited any of her estates in decades.

The Manhattan district attorney's Elder Abuse Unit launched an investigation into Bock and Kamsler's management of Clark's money last month, after MSNBC.com reported that her friends and staff had not seen the heiress in more than 20 years.

Cynthia Garcia, a former paralegal for Bock, has also alleged the attorney has repeatedly tried to get Clark to sign codicils naming Bock and Kamsler as beneficiaries, the New York Post reported.

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In his court filing, Bock denies any mismanagement of the heiress's estate but does acknowledge that Clark has been generous to him. He said that on one occasion, he solicited a gift of $1.5 million from her to develop a security system in Efrat, Israel, where his daughter and her family reside.

Bock also admits Clark gave his granddaughter a custom-built dollhouse "out of the kindness of her heart." The dollhouse was valued at $10,000, according to the Post.

Neither Bock nor Kamsler has been accused of any crime in connection with the handling of Clark's finances.

There is no word on when the Elder Abuse Unit will conclude its investigation or when a judge will rule on the latest motions.