Facing life behind bars if convicted of murdering his parents in 2025, Nick Reiner today moved a lot closer to getting his hands on his trust fund to mount a strong defense.
At a probate hearing Friday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ruben Garcia, attorneys for the incarcerated Reiner and the trustee of the $1.5 million fund that Rob and Michele Reiner established in 1993 announced they had reached an agreement that could give the confused 33-year-old access to up to half of the money.
“We are pleased to announce that, at your Honor’s direction, we have met and discussed mediation and settlement, and that all parties have now scheduled global mediation,” Reiner’s attorney, Anita Wu, said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom this morning, regarding a meeting set for mid-December.
In a somewhat shocking twist, the unveiling of the mediation comes after months of arguments between Jodi Montgomery, now a trustee, and Reiner over the Nick Reiner Children’s Trust. Today’s planned meeting, in which Reiner, who is absent, is expected to participate virtually, could result in a settlement that would allow the recently re-indicted Being Charlie co-writer to rehire the expensive and notoriously effective Alan Jackson as his lead defense attorney.
Reiner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as special circumstances charges that he stabbed his parents after “waiting.” Although Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman revealed on September 15 that prosecutors had decided not to seek the death penalty for Reiner, a trial has still not been set for the criminal case.
“We hope we can reach a fair and reasonable resolution with the trustee,” Wu told Deadline on Friday. Judge Garcia today set a date of March 17, 2027 on the court calendar to consider any possible settlement.
After this morning’s quick hearing, in which Wu also attempted to secure $300 from the trust fund for her client’s immediate needs behind bars at DTLA’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility, trust attorney Lauriann Wright was also optimistic about hopes for mediation. Outside the courtroom, Wright’s attorney Kim Douglas said that with “smart, experienced attorneys” working together on the financial issue, she was “optimistic” they could find a solution for Reiner.
Wu emphasized the urgency from his client’s perspective.
“These issues need to be resolved as quickly as possible,” Brown partner Neri Smith & Khn insisted this morning. “Every week that this conflict of trust continues, Nick continues to be deprived of his constitutional right to defend himself by using money that legally belongs to him to pay his chosen lawyer, who is Alan Jackson,” Wu added. “In the meantime, Nick’s trust money continues to be used to pay the legal fees of the trustees’ lawyers. It is Nick’s money that pays the lawyers who try to prevent him from accessing his money. None of this makes no sense or serves anyone’s interests.”
Specifically, with ongoing arguments among attorneys over how much of California’s inheritance-denying statute for killers relates to this case, the question at the Dec. 16 mediation meeting is whether the younger Reiner can receive a significant portion of the roughly $550,000 he was apparently eligible for when he turns 30 in 2023.
(L to R) Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner at the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” in Los Angeles in September 2025
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Nick Reiner has been detained in downtown Los Angeles since his arrest Dec. 14 of last year, shortly after the elder Reiners’ mutilated bodies were discovered in their Brentwood home. The youngest son of Few good men The director and his photographer wife had been living with his parents for several months. With his history of drug use and other mental health issues sure to play a major role in any criminal proceedings, Reiner pleaded not guilty to several charges, including murder, during a heated hearing on August 12.
Currently, with Jackson and his Werksman Jackson & Quinn team resigning as attorneys in Reiner’s criminal case on Jan. 7 due to money (or lack thereof), Reiner, who is pleading not guilty, is relying on the public defender’s office and the highly regarded Kimberly Greene in court.
The next hearing in the criminal case will take place in January 2027, with the spotlight on a dispute over the unsealing of grand jury testimony.
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