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It isn't every day that an octogenarian gets accused of elder abuse, but that's what happened last summer to Anthony Marshall. Marshall, 82, is son and former guardian to the 104-year-old heiress Brooke Astor. During the latter half of the 20th century, Mrs. Astor was queen bee and philanthropist-in-chief to New York society. But in the 21st she fell victim to Alzheimer's disease. The society doyenne, along with her two beloved dogs, Boysie and Girlsie, declined quietly in her Park Avenue duplex under Marshall's supervision, tended by eight household servants and round-the-clock nurses. Marshall also managed her finances.  

In July, a fired butler's  claim that Mrs. Astor was living in squalor came to Marshall's son Philip, a historic preservationist. Philip petitioned the New York Supreme Court to reassign his grandmother's guardianship and gathered statements from household help plus friends of his grandmother, including David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. "Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine," Philip swore in an affidavit accompanying the petition on July 21. He also claimed his father was "enriching himself" with the elderly woman's assets.

Mrs. Astor was promptly whisked to Lenox Hill Hospital and relocated a few days later to her country estate in Westchester, where she has resided, presumably in comfort, ever since. Responsibility for daily supervision of Mrs. Astor was reassigned from Anthony and his wife Charlene to  Annette De la Renta, wife of the fashion designer Oscar De la Renta and a longtime friend. Financial responsibility for Mrs. Astor's significant wealth was moved to J.P. Morgan Chase, referred to in the document below and on the following six pages as "the Bank."

Meanwhile, the Park Avenue duplex remained uninhabited. In September, Morgan Chase authorized a contractor to wrap "the [smelly] couch in the Blue Room" so that it could be preserved as evidence. Meanwhile, Anthony insisted in court filings that his mother's living conditions at the duplex had "reflected her wealth and social standing." In October, prior to a competency hearing, Justice John Stackhouse ordered Morgan Chase to report to him about the condition of the household items. That report is today's Hot Document. It states: "The couch in the Blue Room appears to be in satisfactory condition." The urine-soaked sofa  featured in gossip columns and at the heart of the dispute was, apparently, just fine. Boysie and Girlsie were framed!

It's possible, of course, that some vigorous application of Nature's Miracle  took place before the Blue Room couch got whisked away. But Justice Stackhouse wrote in a December  order over legal fees, "allegations in the petition regarding Mrs. Astor's medical and dental care, and the other allegations of intentional elder abuse by the Marshalls, were not substantiated.''

The claims of financial enrichment were another matter.  The senior Mr. Marshall agreed in a settlement * to return to his mother $11 million in cash, jewelry and art.

Got a Hot Document? Send it to documents@slate.com. Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.

*Correction, Dec. 24: An earlier version of this column stated, incorrectly, that Mr. Marshall was ordered by the court to return the $11 million.