A granddaughter of the late media magnate Sumner Redstone and a man who maintains he was her former personal assistant have dropped dueling lawsuits against each other in litigation that included accusations the plaintiff threatened the woman with a gun.
Scott Michael Nathan’s lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Keryn Redstone in August 2022 and amended two months later to allege defamation, breach of oral contract, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional interference with contractual relations. Nathan contended Redstone defamed him in part by falsely telling adult film actor Danny Mountain that Nathan threatened Redstone with a gun.
Nathan works as an estate manager and personal assistant who provides services to clients who need help managing their lives. He and Redstone met in 2017 and in August of that year, she called saying she wanted to hire him as her estate manager and personal assistant to manage her life, offering a $50,000 bonus upon starting work, the amended suit states.
Redstone later countersued Nathan, maintaining he indeed threatened her with a firearm after she ordered him out of her home on Sept. 30, 2021. Redstone said she went to another room and called police after Nathan calmed down.
On Wednesday, attorneys for the parties filed court papers with Judge Kevin C. Brazile asking that the litigation be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning none of it can be refiled. The court papers do not state if settlements were reached or if the pair are not pursuing the litigation for other reasons.
According to Nathan’s suit, his job as Redstone’s assistant was to “manage her otherwise chaotic life,” but Redstone denied she hired him for any position.
Redstone “appears to have severe mental health and substance abuse problems and is so dysfunctional that she cannot manage her domestic affairs,” according to Nation’s suit, which further alleged that Nathan’s job included cooking meals, ordering groceries, shopping for her and managing her home.
Redstone paid Nathan and reimbursed him for his expenses via PayPal, but he was never given the promised bonus, the suit stated.
After Nathan helped Redstone move into a new home in Brentwood in 2021, she asked him to work for her on a full-time basis and move into her residence, the suit states. She once offered him $24,000 if he left his apartment for her residence, but she reneged, the suit alleged.
Nathan stopped working for Redstone on Oct. 1, 2021, prompting her to start “a vendetta of threats, lies and intimidation” against the plaintiff, including telling several acquaintances that he had committed various crimes of theft or violence against her and that she intended to have him “killed or seriously injured,” according to the plaintiff’s complaint.
Redstone was aware that the people to whom she spoke knew Nathan and would feel obligated to tell him what she had said, causing him to become “terrified and in fear for his life and personal safety because he believed that Redstone was so angry, wealthy and deranged that she was capable of paying a criminal to have him killed or badly beaten up,” according to the suit.
Nathan alleged that Redstone contacted PayPal and complained that Nathan had stolen money from her, causing him to have a deficit of more than $50,000 in his account and damaging his credit. Nathan also is seeking nearly $24,000 in attorneys’ fees from Redstone for bringing what his lawyers maintain was a frivolous anti-SLAPP motion that was denied by a judge.
In her countersuit, Redstone said Nathan is a former friend who she asked to stay temporarily with her at her new home because she felt uncomfortable being there alone.
“After a few days of residence, (Nathan) became aggressive and began to threaten (Redstone) making demands for funds and threatening to harm (Redstone’s) pets if he was not paid,” the countersuit states.
Redstone also maintained that Nathan used her phone without permission to transfer funds from her PayPal and other accounts to himself. Redstone’s late grandfather, a billionaire and former Viacom chairman, died in Los Angeles in August 2020 at age 97.