A former driver for the late Hudson News magnate Robert Cohen testified Wednesday that his boss willfully altered a will that would eventually squeeze out his granddaughter Samantha Perelman, daughter of Revlon mogul Ronald Perelman.
David Merritt said that he held Cohen’s hand as he signed a 2007 amendment that promised his Palm Beach estate to his son James Cohen, if Robert’s daughter, gossip columnist Claudia Cohen, Samantha’s mother, died first.
Samantha, 23, is suing James Cohen in New Jersey state court, claiming he coerced his ailing and elderly father into cutting her out of a $600 million inheritance after Claudia Cohen died of cancer in 2007.
Samantha’s attorneys argue that her grandfather was incapacitated by Parkinson’s disease and other infirmities to the point that he couldn’t comprehend the changes he was making.
Merritt said his elderly boss still kept watch over his business empire and scrutinized sales receipts with a magnifying glass each night.