The daughter of the late music producer Phil Spector, having previously obtained a temporary restraining order preventing the sale at auction by Juliens Auctions LLC of memorabilia that once belonged to her father, has now added his ex-wife as a defendant in her lawsuit.
On May 18 Torrance Superior Court Judge David K. Reinert issued a TRO in favor of Nicole Spector, preventing any auction from going forward before a July 27 hearing on whether a preliminary injunction should be issued pending the full outcome of the case. Nicole Spector’s original suit, filed May 16, states she obtained a detailed probate court order after her father’s death “specifically confirming” that the personal property at issue belongs to the trust established by Phil Spector in 2016, which names her as the sole trustee.
Nicole Spector maintains she obtained the probate order after her father’s ex-wife, Rachelle Spector, refused to turn over or allow the plaintiff access to property that remained in the former spouse’s possession after the divorce was final.
In an amended suit filed Friday, Nicole Spector has added Rachelle Spector as a defendant, alleging conversion of property by her father’s onetime spouse. Nicole Spector seeks a preliminary injunction stopping Rachelle Spector from “taking possession of any items of the Spector property” or offering or advertising it for sale or auction.
“Rachelle intentionally took possession of, prevented Nicole from having access to, and thus substantially interfered with Nicole’s right to possession of the Spector property,” according to the revised suit, in which Nicole Spector seeks punitive damages from Rachelle Spector.
In a sworn declaration submitted in support of her request for a preliminary injunction, Nicole Spector says a Julien’s representative stated that the Spector property was obtained from a woman associated with Antiques on Magnolia in Burbank, who claimed to have obtained the property from a woman purporting to be the musician’s daughter.
“Based on Rachelle’s prior behavior, and what I understand Julien’s to have represented regarding the manner in which it obtained the Spector property, I believe that Rachelle impersonated me, or a representative of the estate, and provided the items to Julien’s, personally or through a third party, on the pretense that Rachelle was me and thus was entitled to sell the Spector property,” Nicole Spector says.
The property at issue includes gold and platinum records, awards from the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and numerous others, original master recordings, music and lyric sheets, a framed photo montage given to Phil Spector by John Lennon and numerous other valuable items.
In her own sworn declaration, Rachelle Spector says that of the items listed for auction, many were not identified as being granted to Phil Spector in the divorce settlement because they were deemed to be her property at the time.
“The remaining items in the Julien’s auction are my property as they had been left behind by Nicole back in January 2019,” Rachelle Spector says. “I now wish to sell my property at auction and I understand that any delay would likely cause a substantial decrease the value of these items.”
Phil Spector died in January 2021 at age 81 while serving a sentence of 19 years to life for the murder of actor Lana Clarkson. The cause of the “Wall of Sound” producer’s death was complications from the coronavirus, Nicole Spector said at the time.