EL PASO, TX — Deceased actor Sherman Hemsley’s longtime friend can proceed with his burial and running his estate, a Texas judge ruled Friday over the objections of his half-brother from Philadelphia.

Hemsley, who played George Jefferson on the TV sitcom “The Jeffersons,” died July 24 of lung cancer. His body has been in refrigerated storage at an El Paso funeral home since.

Judge Patricia B. Chew sided Friday with Flora Enchinton Bernal, who was named in Hemsley’s will as the executor of his estate. Chew upheld the validity of his will and granted Enchinton “the authority to dispose, I shouldn’t say dispose, to proceed with the remains of Sherman Hemsley in a manner as she wishes.”

DNA tests showed Friday that 78-year-old Richard Thornton is Hemsley’s half-brother. He wanted to bury his brother at a veterans’ cemetery in Philadelphia, where Hemsley grew up.