Media mogul Sumner Redstone won’t be deposed as part of his legal battle with his former companion Manuela Herzer, a judge decided Thursday.
“We are deeply gratified that the court continues to protect Mr. Redstone’s privacy and dignity,” Redstone’s attorney, Gabrielle Vidal, said in a statement. “Ms. Herzer’s eagerness to subject a 92-year old man with a severe speech impairment to these intrusive proceedings is offensive. We also find it telling that while Ms. Herzer claims to be acting for Mr. Redstone’s benefit, she refers to him in Court as her ‘opponent’.”
Pierce O’Donnell, Herzer’s lawyer, said in a statement “the failure to produce Redstone dooms their defense.” Herzer’s camp had argued that because Redstone planned to testify at trial, he should also be subject to a deposition by her lawyers beforehand.
However, Redstone’s lawyers told the judge Thursday that he will not testify at trial after all.
“We eagerly await trial where all this evidence will assure that the Court protects Redstone from those who are supposed to protect him but instead are preying on him,” O’Donnell said.
Last year, Herzer sued to be reinstated as the steward of Redstone’s care. Her case claimed Redstone was like a “living ghost,” unable to follow conversations and sign his own name, and exposed prurient allegations of his sexual appetite. Redstone’s lawyers rejected the claims as an attempt to insinuate herself in his estate after she was removed in October.
The resulting drama has been legal spectacle grabbing the attention of watchers both in both Hollywood and on Wall Street. Redstone is controlling shareholder of two media giants, Viacom and CBS, thanks to special shares that give him roughly 80 percent control over both.
Last week, lawyers for Redstone and Herzer appeared close to a settlement, having agreed in principle to a preliminary framework for a deal that would have averted a trial. Herzer would drop her suit and cease contact with Redstone in exchange for a seven-figure sum, according to a person briefed on the matter. That deal would also place Redstone in control of his own health care, while his daughter, Shari, and a long-time family friend based in Los Angeles would become his health-care proxy should he become incapacitated.