A 43-year-old Florida man who says he is Charles Manson’s grandson told a judge Friday he will not submit to a DNA test to determine paternity unless ordered to do so by the court.
Jason Freeman said he would not voluntarily agree to the test requested by longtime Manson pen pal Michael Channels. Channels’ lawyer, Theodore Theodosiadis, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Clifford Klein that he will bring a motion to obtain the sample.
Freeman, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Be The Change,” explained after the hearing his reason for not wanting to voluntarily grant Channels’ request.
“There are people on the other side who are trying to build up a case against me,” Freeman said.
However, Freeman said he will agree to take the test if the judge orders it because he is convinced of his relationship to Manson.
“To me, it’s an open and shut case,” Freeman said. “All my life that’s the way I grew up, that’s all I’ve known.”
Meanwhile, Klein extended until June 21 Attorney Dale Kiken’s role as temporary special administrator role over the mass killer’s estate.
Kiken originally was appointed to the role on Aug. 28, giving him authority to protect Freeman’s interests, but the term was scheduled to expire Friday.
Kiken is tasked with recovering property, on behalf of Freeman, that the cult leader left behind in prison when he died Nov. 19, 2017, at age 83 at Bakersfield Mercy Hospital of heart failure triggered by colon cancer that had spread to other areas of his body.
Kiken told the judge he has already obtained boxes of Manson’s belongings from Corcoran State Prison, but that he has not yet gone through the items, nor does he know their potential value.
“I would guess those are some difficult items to appraise,” Klein said.
Klein ordered that redacted documents Theodosiadis obtained from the prison by subpoena be kept under seal and viewable only by lawyers in the case and their investigators. Kiken’s lawyer, Alan Davis, said he does not know what information is on the paperwork Theodosiadis obtained.
Freeman said he is unaware of the nature of the items Kiken obtained from the prison, but that the potential value of the property is not as important to him as the spiritual peace he has reached with himself.
“I’m (happy) in my life finally at age 43,” Freeman said. “I know I’m going to go home and go back to work.”
Freeman said he has four children and works in construction. He said he also trains people in the martial arts.
Freeman won a significant court victory when a Kern County commissioner ruled in March that he was entitled to Manson’s remains. Freeman and Kiken maintain that a 2002 Manson will Channels alleges he possesses is a forgery.
Channels said Manson’s 2002 will, filed in Kern County in November 2017, names him the executor of Manson’s estate.
A trial on the competing petitions by Kiken and Channels to be the estate’s permanent administrator has not yet been set.