DOCUMENT: Crime

More Family Troubles For Eminem

Aunt and uncle sue over Shady real estate, stipend deal

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More Family Troubles For Eminem

AUGUST 18--As if he needs more family-based litigation, Eminem is being sued by his aunt and uncle, who claim that the rap star welshed on a promise to buy them a home and pay a yearly $100,000 stipend in return for their relocation to Michigan, where Slim Shady resides.

Jack and Betti Schmitt claim that Eminem (real name: Marshall Mathers) convinced them to move from their Missouri home in 2001 because he wanted a little familial companionship (the 32-year-old performer is famously estranged from his mother and has had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife).

According to this lawsuit, filed August 12 in Michigan's Macomb County Court, the Schmitts contend that while their nephew did build them a 3000-square-foot house, he refused to transfer title to the property, which is close to the rapper's $5 million Rochester Hills estate. He is now trying to boot them from the property, according to an eviction notice filed last month.

The Schmitts (Betti is Em's mom's younger sister) also claim that they never received all the money they were promised for uprooting from St. Joseph, Missouri, where Jack was a truck driver and Betti a housewife. According to their lawyer, the Schmitts were paid to care for Eminem's young daughter and also watch over his home (attached as exhibits to the lawsuit are Betti's W-2 forms, issued to her by a pair of Mathers corporations and the rapper himself).

The Schmitt complaint was filed a few days before the recording artist, citing exhaustion, cancelled a 10-date European tour. An Eminem spokesman subsequently revealed that the rapper is undergoing treatment for a dependency to sleep medication. (10 pages)