Nick Reiner was reportedly placed in a conservatorship due to his mental health, five years before he was charged with the murder of his parents, Michele and Rob Reiner.
The Reiners’ youngest son was ordered into a yearlong mental health conservatorship that began in 2020 and ended in 2021, according to a new report from the New York Times. Steven Baer, a licensed fiduciary who was appointed as Nick’s conservator, remarked to the paper on Thursday that mental illness “is an epidemic that is widely misunderstood and this is a horrible tragedy.”
Baer did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment. The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, which took up Nick’s case after high-profile attorney Alan Jackson withdrew as his representation, declined to comment, as did the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case.
A representative for L.A. Superior Court said the court couldn’t comment on whether a conservatorship case exists as to Nick Reiner because such cases are confidential by law.
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The legal arrangement Nick reportedly entered into in 2020 is called an L.P.S. conservatorship, named for the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act that established it, according to the outlet. Unlike the high-profile probate conservatorship Britney Spears was placed into in 2008, L.P.S. conservatorships are designated for individuals deemed “gravely disabled” as a result of a mental disorder. Spears’ conservatorship, by contrast, is designated for those unable to manage their own finances or provide for their own personal needs.
L.P.S. conservatorships are primarily triggered by involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. Doctors initiate the process before passing cases to the County to assess their merits, who in turn refer the potential conservatees to a judge. This type of conservatorship is termed at one year, at which point the conservator can either renew or dissolve the arrangement.
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Since his arrest, Nick was held back from at least one court appointment because he wasn’t medically cleared. While being held in jail the week after his parents’ deaths, he was placed on suicide watch and was being checked “every 15 minutes” in solitary confinement.
Rob and Michele Reiner were discovered dead of an apparent homicide in their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick was arrested hours later in connection with the crimes, and charged two days later with two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, with a special allegation that he used a dangerous and deadly weapon — a knife.
In the weeks since the Reiners’ deaths and their son’s arrest, details of his troubled history of addiction and mental illness have been revealed or otherwise resurfaced. He was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago, but the medication regimen he used to treat the condition was apparently adjusted before his parents’ deaths, according to the NYT.
[This article has been updated to responses from the L.A. County Public Defender’s Office, L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, and L.A. Superior Court.]