Redstone GalPal Denied New Competency Trial

Manuela Herzer

A former girlfriend and confidante of Sumner Redstone won’t get a new trial to argue the 93-year-old media billionaire was mentally incompetent when he evicted her from his mansion last year and replaced her as his health-care agent.

Bloomberg reports a probate court judge in Los Angeles Monday denied Manuela Herzer’s request for a new trial. The same judge in May dismissed Herzer’s case after one day of trial, finding that Redstone’s videotaped deposition made it clear he didn’t want her in his life any longer.

“Redstone has made it abundantly clear that he does not want this person whom he no longer views as a friend to be in charge of his medical care,” Superior Court Judge David Cowan said in a ruling issued at a hearing.

“A true ‘miscarriage of justice’ would have been to grant Herzer’s request and force upon Redstone, against his will, someone who he so avowedly declared he did not want making health care decisions for him and whom he distrusts.”

Shari Redstone

Redstone’s eviction of Herzer in October and her subsequent court petition to have him declared mentally incapacitated were the opening salvos in an all-out war that now pits the controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. against his long-time protege, Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman, in courts in California, Massachusetts, and Delaware.

The disputes also raise the question of whether Redstone’s daughter Shari, a rival to Dauman, is pulling the strings for control of his media empire.

Dauman, who initially vouched for Redstone’s mental acuity when Herzer went to court, has since adopted the ex-girlfriend’s allegations that he’s being manipulated by Shari Redstone.

Herzer has separately sued Shari Redstone, claiming she interfered with an inheritance that would have been worth about $70 million.

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