[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Nick Reiner‘s lawyers have claimed in new filings that he has not received any money from his family while he awaits trial on murder charges in the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner.
According to two new filings obtained by People and others over the weekend, the 33-year-old Nick is fighting to access a family trust fund worth $1.6 million to help pay for his legal fees, but in the meantime, he has not received “even $5 for the jail commissary” from his family funds, according to his attorneys.
Related: Nick Reiner Disciplined After ‘Extremely Hostile’ Shower Outburst In Jail — Whoa
In the first of two separate filings sent to the court on Thursday, Reiner’s attorneys replied to objections from the trust fund’s successor trustee Jodi Pais Montgomery and former trustee Paul R. Kanin, claiming Nick has not been able to access ANY trust fund money for basic needs in jail, or to hire a private criminal defense attorney.
In their response, Nick’s attorneys Anita P. Wu and Geoffrey A. Neri wrote:
“Nick still has not been able to access even $5 from his trust to buy basic subsistence items from the jail commissary.”
That money has been long-delayed, their response to Kanin claimed:
“Nick has been unable to access money that is lawfully his own — to re-engage criminal defense counsel, or even for basic subsistence items from the jail commissary.”
At the center of the dispute is a distribution that was due to be paid to Nick upon his 30th birthday, which was back on September 14 of 2023. According to the trust fund terms and the successor trustee’s calculation, Nick had been due at least $558,000 on the day.
The Montgomery filing notes:
“Nick turned 30 on September 14, 2023. By the Successor Trustee’s own calculation, at least $558,000 became due and payable to him that day. His parents were alive. No one had accused him of anything.”
His attorneys are now arguing that this money should be available to Nick for legal defense funds, because it was due to be paid out to him BEFORE his parents’ deaths, and thus should not be subject to the terms of California’s so-called Slayer Statute, which prevents a person from benefitting financially from a death that they (allegedly, in this case) unlawfully caused.
Related: The One Family Member Standing By Nick As He Rapidly ‘Deteriorates’ In Prison Awaiting Trial
The filing claims:
“The Slayer Statute, the sole remaining basis for withholding this money, takes away what a person receives as a result of someone’s death. It does not implicate money that became Nick’s years earlier.”
His attorneys then went on to write:
“Nick Reiner is the sole beneficiary of a trust his parents created for him in 1993 (the ‘Trust’ or ‘Nick’s Trust’), when he was an infant. It holds roughly $1.6 million. He sits in custody awaiting trial on double-homicide charges that carry life without the possibility of parole, defended by the Los Angeles County Public Defender at public expense — not because he cannot afford a lawyer of his own, but because the Trustees of his Trust will not release his money to him.”
Ultimately, per People, there is a hearing on the trust dispute that has now been scheduled for October 23.
So, perhaps by that point, Nick and his attorneys will get some clarity on whether or not he can use family funds previously intended for him to pay for his criminal defense in this shocking, sad case.
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[Image via MEGA/WENN/Michele Reiner/Instagram]
