Nick Reiner placed in yearlong Los Angeles mental health conservatorship in 2020

Nick Reiner, who has been charged with killing his parents, was placed into a yearlong mental health conservatorship in 2020, two people with knowledge of the arrangement told The New York Times. A clerk with the Los Angeles Superior Court said the conservatorship ended in 2021. Steven Baer, the licensed fiduciary appointed as Mr.

Reiner’s conservator, said mental illness “is an epidemic that is widely misunderstood and this is a horrible tragedy.” Both people declined to provide further details about the arrangement, citing confidentiality. The revelation underscores the severity of mental health challenges Mr.

Reiner faced in recent years, issues likely to be central to his legal defense. The Times reported that Mr. Reiner, 32, has a serious mental illness and struggled in the weeks before his arrest with a change in medication; two people familiar with his health said he had been diagnosed at different times with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed in their Los Angeles home on Dec. 14. He is being represented by a public defender and has not entered a plea. Mr. Reiner was placed under an L.P.S. conservatorship, based on the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, a process that allows involuntary psychiatric treatment and gives a conservator the authority to make medical decisions, including about psychiatric medications.

Key Topics

Health, Nick Reiner, Rob Reiner, L.p.s. Conservatorship, Schizophrenia, Steven Baer