Kelley and Lee Beaman
Auto dealer and conservative political mega-donor Lee Beaman is due in court next week in his multimillion-dollar divorce case.
In her trial brief, Beaman’s fourth wife Kelley alleges that Lee Beaman made her watch videos of him having sex with a prostitute — what he called “training videos.” On more than one occasion, Kelley Beaman alleges, her husband persuaded her to have joint sexual encounters with prostitutes. Kelley Beaman says that Lee Beaman was so addicted to pornography that he would watch it on his iPad while sitting in the same room as his family, including his minor son.
On Friday morning, Lee Beaman’s lawyers asked the court to strike Kelley Beaman’s brief, arguing it “contains immaterial, impertinent and scandalous matter only meant to harass Mr. Beaman and it has little to no relevance on the issues before the Court,” though the filing does not dispute the specific allegations. Also, the attorneys say, it was filed late.
According to the wife’s brief, Lee Beaman “carried around a list in his wallet of women in which he was interested” and cheated on her multiple times.
She admits to an affair of her own toward the end of the marriage, though she suggests his reaction to learning of her infidelity is further proof of his “degradation, control, manipulation and abuse.” According to his wife, Beaman made her confess to the affair on conference calls with several of their friends and associates and used knowledge of the affair to force her to do things he wanted her to do.
In her brief, Kelley Beaman requests $15,000 per month in child support (less than the $17,000 per month she estimates she spent on their teenage son during a recent three-year period), which she says is just 2 percent of her husband’s monthly income. Lee Beaman, in his own pre-trial brief, argues that he should pay $2,100 per month in child support and offers to pay his son’s private school tuition and some other costs. She also asks for more than $4 million, half of her husband’s property and more, mostly as stipulated in the couple’s prenuptial agreement.
Lee Beaman, a board member at both Belmont University and Montgomery Bell Academy, has used his fortune to fund his favored political causes for years. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the successful efforts to defeat Nashville’s last two major transit initiatives: the Amp in 2013 and the citywide transit referendum earlier this year. He was also a major funder of the 2009 campaign to pass an English-only amendment to Nashville’s charter.
Among his frequent donations to both local and national conservatives, Beaman made a maximum contribution to Roy Moore’s U.S. Senate campaign three days after The Washington Post reported allegations that the former Alabama judge had sexual relationships with teenagers while he was in his 30s. Beaman has given more than $40,000 to groups supporting Marsha Blackburn’s campaign for Senate.
Mark Brown, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Democratic Party, urged Blackburn and other Republican groups to donate Beaman’s money to charities like the YWCA.
“Congresswoman Blackburn’s enthusiastic receipt of financial support from alleged abuser Lee Beaman, set against her opposition to the Violence Against Women Act, is troubling,” Brown said in a statement.
Lee Beaman and Kelley Beaman, who met when she was 21 and he 45, according to court filings, continued to live in the same home after he filed for divorce last year. The living situation was not peaceful, according to earlier court documents published by Scoop Nashville. The documents depict Lee Beaman as wearing a body camera in his own home around the clock to protect himself from “false and unsubstantiated allegations.”
