Oleg Cassini's widow jailed a second time

A judge again has thrown the widow of  the fashion designer  behind Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House wardrobe into the  Nassau County jail for refusing to cooperate with efforts to divide Oleg Cassini’s nearly $60 million estate.

The second incarceration of Marianne Nestor Cassini comes nearly three months after her release from the East Meadow facility following  a six-month stint behind bars.

In jailing her on Jan. 22, Nassau Surrogate’s Court Judge Margaret Reilly ordered that Nestor Cassini remain an inmate until purging her civil contempt by working with a court-appointed receiver charged with gathering the assets of Cassini’s two companies.

The widow’s second jailing follows what court-appointed receiver and Garden City attorney Rosalia Baiamonte described in court papers as a “maniacal tirade” on the widow’s part earlier this month.

The receiver alleged Nestor Cassini called NYPD on Baiamonte as she tried to collect company assets at a Manhattan property with auction house employees.

Baiamonte said the widow showed up at the East 63rd Street company office and showroom space on Jan. 10, in violation of an order from Reilly, and “raged” at her while spewing vulgarities and accusing the group of trespassing and stealing her belongings.

“Mrs. Cassini threatened me (more than once) that she would one day hunt down my personal home, break into it and steal my personal belongings,” the receiver wrote.

She added that the widow “even attempted to cajole her dog . . . to ‘attack’ me.”

Baiamonte, who declined to comment Monday, further claimed Nestor Cassini opened boxes packed for the auction company and removed items, while insisting she was “the sole owner” of Cassini’s two companies and assets.

Judges have ruled otherwise in the estate battle that has pitted the widow, first against her late husband’s daughters from his earlier marriage to 1940s film star Gene Tierney, and now against his grandson.

"We would have hoped that the first incarceration would have brought her around to complying with the multiple orders of the court, but apparently it has not," Uniondale attorney John Barnosky, who represents Cassini's grandson, said Monday.

The battle over Oleg Cassini's estate has dragged on for more than a decade since the designer's death in 2006 at age 92.

"I just think it's very hard for her to watch and accept the fact that she has lost control of a company that she's helped build and run. And ultimately, to lose certain memorabilia and possessions that have such meaning," said Steven Gaitman, the widow's Hempstead attorney.

Estate assets include Jacqueline Kennedy memorabilia, worth an estimated $1.8 million, and about $50,000 in keepsakes connected to Princess Grace of Monaco, the late actress Grace Kelly. The estate also includes a 43-acre property in Oyster Bay Cove with an Italian Renaissance-style mansion on the grounds.

In 2015, a different Nassau judge awarded half of the estate to Cassini's daughters and the other half to the widow. But in 2017, Reilly found evidence the widow moved estate assets into her own name and had been neglectful in her former duties as the estate’s executor.

Reilly then ordered the widow to pay more than $20 million to the estate, a figure previously estimated at around $50 million with interest.

The receiver’s attorney, David Shargel, also has alleged in court papers that Nestor Cassini has stolen $80,000 from a Cassini company bank account since her November jail release.

Reilly also found Nestor Cassini lied in court and in jail about her date of birth and Social Security number, with incorrect numbers apparently also used on tax documents filed with the IRS, a court transcript shows.

Nestor Cassini is now listed as a 76-year-old Nassau jail inmate, only months after she was listed there as age 68.  

She's due in court in March.