Actor Gary Coleman defeated his mother's effort to take control of his $7 million fortune, despite her claim that she only wanted the best for the diminutive 21-year-old. Edmonia Sue Coleman had asked a court conservator to take over Coleman's finances, saying the former "Diff'rent Strokes" star was unable to make decisions rationally because of the effects of a kidney disease and what she viewed as the bad influence of a close friend.
But on Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Martha Goldin disagreed. "The very things you claim he doesn't have, he's got," Goldin told an attorney for Coleman's mother.Coleman, who played the precocious Arnold Jackson on the hit TV show, has filed a separate lawsuit alleging his parents and former business manager mishandled his money and funneled away more than $1 million for themselves. The lawsuit has yet to come to trial.