Nick Reiner, the son of popular movie director Rob Reiner, who is charged with his murd£r, has filed a petition for his inheritance.
The 32-year-old made the shocking demand in court documents on Monday, requesting the money his parents, Rob and Michele, set aside in a trust for him.
According to Mail Online, Nick claims in the petition that he was supposed to receive half of the $1.5 million in his trust when he turned 30, with the other half allocated when he turns 35.
But, he alleges, the current trustee – identified as lawyer Paul Kanin – ‘has offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications’ for not turning over the funds, including ‘unsubstantiated “concerns” about Nick’s so-called competence to “manage a trust”‘ despite the terms his parents set up.
When he then tried to hire famed defense lawyer Alan Jackson to help him fight the murder charges, Nick said the trustee refused to pay Jackson – prompting the lawyer to withdraw from the case and forcing Nick to turn to a public defender instead.
In his petition, Nick said Kanin indicated that he would not be able to access funds from the trust until after his guilt or innocence has been adjudicated by the court.
According to the petition, Nick told Kanin that ‘time is of the essence’ and explained that he needed Jackson to avoid ‘further jeopardizing my defense in the criminal matter’ as he has no other source of funding for his legal bills or basic supplies like soap and socks while behind bars.
‘Every additional week of delay is a week in which the counsel of his choice cannot investigate or prepare on his behalf – prejudice to his defense that cannot be undone,’ Nick’s lawyers claim.
‘The harm is irreparable, and it grows with each day the Trustee withholds funds that are already Nick’s.
‘In the meantime, for reasons unknown to Petitioner, the Trustee continues to deplete Nick’s funds by paying lawyers to raise one reason after another for holding on to Nick’s money for another two years, all of which violate the plain terms of the Trust.’
The petition also claims Kanin is seeking to pass on the trust to another trustee, and that he originally delayed handing over the funds Nick was owed on his 30th birthday by claiming he believed his predecessor had already turned over the funds.
Nick is now seeking accounting and damages from Kanin.
The murder suspect is being represented in his criminal case by Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, who entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to six felony charges, two of first-degree murd£r, two of special circumstances involving multiple murder, and two counts of special circumstances using a deadly weapon, a knife.
Prosecutors allege Nick killed his parents at their $13.5 million home in upscale Brentwood, Los Angeles, on December 14, fatally stabbing them before fleeing the scene.