RealTime

Father Discusses Leah’s “Clean Out” of Cash, Jewelry from Dying Grandmother

Leah Remini’s father explains how Remini had her sister, Nicole, “clean out” all possessions of their dying grandmother, leaving him with nothing—not even his own childhood pictures.

TRANSCRIPT:

GEORGE: Back in the day, my mother’s apartment, she [mother] was almost gone. She was almost in a coma in her bedroom in a hospital bed when Nicole [Leah’s sister] came over. And I was supposed to meet Nicole for lunch. When I came over, I went to my mother—I wanted to see her, see how she is and everything. And Nicole got up and left. I says, “Where are you going?” She says, “I’m going next door.” I says, “For what?” She says, “Oh, we got a couple of things we have to do.” I says, “I thought we were going to lunch.” I was very naive, I have to say, I was very naive. And what the girls told me, that worked for my mother, that Nicole cleaned out all the drawers, all the money, all her jewelry, every single picture I ever had of my family, money—everything. She took everything next door to sort it out with this other woman. It was Nicole and whoever her accomplice was.

DANA: And the two Jamaican nurses, their exact words were, “Now we know who the bad ones are.”

GEORGE: I said, “Well, what do you mean?” She says, “You know what I mean.” Leah and Nicole actually formed a—probably a fictitious letter, you know, giving them authority, because there was no will, you know, per se. So, they did it. How? They got the bank accounts, they got her insurance money, everything. Probably through a fictitious will because I would have been mentioned in the will, if you remember that paper I gave you [interviewer]. There were three names on it: Leah, Nicole—

DANA: More than likely, Leah got a lawyer and the lawyer said, “Okay, this is—

GEORGE: Have your, have your—

DANA: what you do, draw up the papers, get power—

GEORGE: Have your grandmother sign this.

DANA: power of attorney, so they probably drew up papers and did everything, you know.

GEORGE: Well, let’s see. She had her retirement fund from the union. She had her Social Security retirement. I think she was getting 8 or 900 dollars a month.

DANA: They just wanted the cash.

GEORGE: They just wanted the cash, the jewelry—

DANA: Right.

GEORGE: I mean, don’t forget, there’s like 60 years of jewelry—

DANA: Right.

GEORGE: my mother had, which they have. Meaning Nicole and Leah.

DANA: Well, put it this way. Nicole bought a home.

GEORGE: Right. Nicole bought a home with that money and—

DANA: Which she lost to the foreclosure—

GEORGE: Which she eventually lost to fore…

DANA: because Leah didn’t want to help her.

GEORGE: Yeah, Leah didn’t want to help her. After Leah getting an end [share] of everything, Leah didn’t want to help her when she was losing her home. You know, she has my mother’s wedding ring, which I would like back, you know, for me. She has all my pictures as a child growing up, my family growing up, my aunts, my uncles. She has everything. When I contacted Nicole once, I said, “Nicole, I’d like to get, you know, pictures of my brother who passed away. And, you know, whatever belongs to me rightfully.” I think I’ve given you [interviewer] the lists or something. Remember? I gave you what my mother said. She said give this to this, this to that, right? And they didn’t follow through on anything. To this day, they haven’t followed through. And my mother died, what, 15 years ago?

DANA: Yeah, they don’t—Nicole and Leah, they don’t want us to have anything.

GEORGE: Nothing. Nothing.

DANA: Even when his [George’s] daughter died of terminal cancer and there was a malpractice suit and the lawyer for his daughter’s estate was trying to find him because they were suing the doctors. And the lawyer for the daughter’s estate called Leah and said, you know, “I’m trying to find your father. Do you have his email or do you know where he lives?” “No, no.” But meanwhile, you’ve had my email.

GEORGE: Well, let’s—

DANA: So again, in cahoots, trying to beat us out of money.

GEORGE: Well, let’s go back to Nicole or Leah not having my address. Well, if you didn’t have my address, then how did you get to my mother? You know, because there was all paperwork in my name, where I live there. So you have all the paperwork. And all of a sudden, like everybody has a mental block.