The luxury items up for sale at a Georgia auction gallery last month would’ve made any stylish woman blush: fur coats dyed in red, purple and teal; Chanel and Rolex watches; diamond bracelets and jewelry studded with precious stones like pearls, sapphires and emeralds.
But it wasn’t just an ordinary estate sale at Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery in Atlanta, where buyers also had their chance to bid on pricey designer handbags, shoes, crystal, art and even vintage Barbie dolls formerly owned by Diane McIver, the wife of a prominent attorney who is free on bond while facing charges in the woman’s death.
“I am Russian. I know fur,” Olga Podeszwa told Racked.com during the three-day luxury estate sale last month. “Russian women would die for some of these coats.”
Another woman at the auction, Natasha Johnson, said the ongoing media coverage of McIver’s death and the allure of discounted fur coats and Chanel bags attracted her to the sale, although she didn’t manage to snag any pieces.
“It’s sad,” Johnson told Racked.com. “I heard they‘re auctioning off the priceless possession of this woman to cover her husband’s legal fees. They should wait until after the trial. But where else could you find these fabulous items at this price?”
All of the items ended up being sold at appraised values or higher, Racked.com reports, and Ahlers & Ogletree declined to disclose the total sales of the estate. But Elizabeth Rickenbaker, the gallery’s director of marketing, told the website the overall sale generated $1.1 million.
“Classic items and makers, especially when it comes to fashion, tend to hold their value best,” Rickenbaker said. “We have also found that more established and popular names in the American market perform better for us than the lesser known (although of equal quality and style) makers. As examples, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci tend to perform better at our auctions than Chloe and Miu Miu. That being said, unique or special items by popular makers can also garner a lot of attention.”
The sale, however, almost didn’t happen, as Fulton County District Paul Howard filed two separate emergency motions on Jan. 12 to stop the sale. The first motion – an emergency injunction – sought to stop the further sale of Diane McIver’s estate by widower Claud “Tex” McIver, based on the state’s so-called slayer law, which prevents someone who caused the death of another person from receiving the proceeds of an estate, trust or life insurance policy.
The second motion sought to keep McIver from using any assets from his late wife’s estate to fund his “legal defense, or provide for his own support and well-being,” Howard said in a statement.
“In the alternative, the District Attorney is asking if the sale is allowed to continue that the proceeds of the sale are held until criminal proceedings in this case are completed,” Howard’s statement concluded.
The following day, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance Russell said the motion was not for her to decide, saying the matter is an issue for probate court, which handles McIver’s will, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
McIver’s attorney, William Hill, said after the hearing that McIver had no intention to use profits from the estate sale for his own benefit.
“Never has that been an issue,” Hill told the newspaper. “Mr. McIver has always offered to have proceeds go into a trust.”
McIver, 74, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter – a felony – and reckless conduct for shooting his wife in the back as they rode in their SUV on Sept. 25. McIver, who was sitting behind his 63-year-old wife at the time, has repeatedly insisted that the shooting was accidental.
Dani Jo Carter, a friend of Diane McIver, was behind the wheel at the time and drove McIver to Emory University Hospital, where she died hours later, the newspaper reported.
But Carter wasn’t identified in the police report and didn’t speak publicly until November, according to Racked.com, and neither Claud McIver nor Carter called 911. Furthermore, four hospitals were closer to the site of the shooting than the one Carter said McIver asked her to take his wife.
The McIvers, by all published accounts, had a loving marriage and lived in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead section. They enjoyed a tony lifestyle, thanks to McIver’s time as a prominent labor and employment law attorney until he retired last month. Diane McIver, meanwhile, was the president of US Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services, where she worked for more than four decades.
The “power couple,” according to Racked.com, also spent a lot of time on their ranch near Reynolds Plantation, where Diane satisfied her affinity for horses.
Ten days after shooting his wife, Claud McIver took a polygraph test conducted by a private contractor at his attorney’s request and the test found no deception in any of McIver’s answers, including whether he intentionally fired the gun or if he knowingly caused the gun to discharge.
“The forensic psychophysiological credibility analysis of Claud L. ‘Tex’ McIver clearly supported his denial of any willful or reckless conduct in the discharge of the weapon, causing the death of his wife,” the report concluded, according to WXIA.
News of the polygraph test followed local media reports that a grand jury indicted Claud McIver in 1990 for aggravated assault and other charges after shooting at three teenagers in a Ford Mustang. He settled the case privately.
Meanwhile, Diane McIver’s former company has since sent a letter to Claud McIver claiming her estate owes $975,000 for a loan connected to a separate company of hers called DRS Investments, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The claim could tie up her estate for some time and prevent any distribution of McIver’s considerable assets, a spokesman for Claud McIver told the paper.
“This is a claim that lacks any supporting documentation,” spokesman Jeff Dickerson said. “We’re going to review and investigate as necessary.”