Robert Durst blasts former in-laws’ claims in court papers

Robert Durst doesn’t think a wrongful death lawsuit filed against him by the family of his ex-wife Kathleen McCormack, who disappeared in 1982, will hold up in court, according to a court new filing by his legal team.

A three-year statute of limitations “unquestionably” bars the suit, the filing said.

Durst’s legal team accused Ann McCormack and her three daughters of seeking to capitalize on “hype” from HBO’s documentary series “The Jinx,” which chronicled the various murder accusations against Durst.The series featured an apparent confession recorded on a hot microphone in its final episode.

The lawsuit, filed in November, invoked the McCormack family’s “right to sepulcher,” a somewhat obscure law that granted them the right to take possession of Kathleen’s body following her disappearance, the New York Post reported.

But the three year statute began in 1982, the filing asserted, and had therefore long expired.

“Whatever may be said about those comments in the media or in other proceedings, they have nothing to do with the statute of limitations, which runs from the date of mental anguish, not from the date of allegedly relevant (although highly debatable) evidence against the defendant,” it said.

Durst’s team was also highly critical of Andrew Jarecki’s “The Jinx.”

“Careful examination of the production leaves no doubt that its producers were more interested in receiving an Emmy than revealing the truth,” the filing said.

Durst plans to plead guilty to an unrelated gun possession charge in Louisiana. That will allow him to be extradited to Los Angeles to face trial in the death of his friend and confidant Susan Berman, who was killed in 2000.

Durst’s brother Douglas, head of the Durst Organization, will testify in that trial. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg