Acting to avoid the stress of court testimony, a judge ordered Monday that Sumner Redstone undergo a 30-minute taped deposition in advance of a trial of his ex-girlfriend’s bid to be reinstated to make health care decisions on behalf of the media mogul.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan said the video deposition by attorneys for Manuela Herzer and Redstone will take place at the media mogul’s home. Each side will have 15 minutes to question him, Cowan ruled.
Cowan said he will view the video during the non-jury trial, which is set to begin Friday. The public will be excluded from viewing the video, but a transcript will be available afterward, Cowan said.
The judge said his decision will help the 92-year-old Redstone avoid the stress of coming to court to testify.
“Nobody deserves to have a career tarnished by having been taken to a courthouse and made a public spectacle of when he would not allow that to happen had he the strength himself to stop it,” Cowan said. “The public will still know what he was asked, what he said in response and in turn the judicial process remains subject to scrutiny through the deposition transcript.”
Herzer contends she oversaw Redstone’s daily care until she was evicted from his house Oct. 12 in a confrontation with his driver, who told her, “Mr. Redstone doesn’t want you here.” She is seeking to be reinstated to make Redstone’s health care decisions.
Herzer’s lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, said he believes Redstone was “brainwashed” into allowing those around him to evict Herzer. The trial will determine whether Redstone was subjected to undue influence.
Herzer’s attorneys maintain Redstone lacks mental capacity to make decisions on his own, but his lawyers dispute that claim and insist that he knew what he was doing when he removed the woman from his home.
A Redstone health care directive created last October will be the focus of the first part of the trial, with a possible second phase dealing with a second directive created last month.
— Wire reports