Judge receives Tom Benson psychiatric report, sets hearing

NEW ORLEANS - A confidential report on the mental health of New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson has been submitted to a civil judge.

Orleans Parish Civil District Court spokesman Walt Pierce says Judge Kern Reese has set a June 1 hearing to discuss the implications of the report, which was conducted by a panel of three psychiatrists. Reese ordered the evaluation as part of a lawsuit against Benson by his recently disowned daughter, Renee, and her two children Rita and Ryan LeBlanc.

The spurned heirs have asked Reese to declare the 87-year-old Benson mentally unfit to cut them out of ownership stakes in New Orleans' two major professional teams.

Benson announced in January that he wants his third wife, Gayle, whom he married in 2004, to inherit full control.