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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993                   TAG: 9302260310
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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PEOPLE

Actor Gary Coleman of "Diff'rent Strokes" fame has won a nearly $1.3 million judgment in his four-year legal battle against his parents and former business adviser.

A Santa Monica, Calif., judge ruled that the former child star's parents, Willie and Edmonia Sue Coleman of Zion, Ill., and ex-trustee Anita De Thomas siphoned off $1,280,522 in salaries, commissions and pension distributions for themselves from the actor's earnings from 1982 to 1987.

In 1990, the star fended off an attempt by his mother to put his $3 million estate in the hands of a conservator. His mother claimed he couldn't handle his affairs; he argued successfully that she just wanted to control his life.

A jury in Fayetteville, N.C., has awarded a man $487,500 in damages for injuries he sustained while filming a scene with actor Jean Claude Van Damme.

The lawsuit was brought against the actor by Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who says he was injured during filming of the movie "Cyborg" in Wilmington four years ago. Pinckney, an extra for the movie, was struck in the left eye by a prop knife while filming a fight scene with Van Damme.

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