Keith Harper heads for Colorado for ‘a long time’

The wheels of justice continue their slow grind in the case of Dia Abrams, as her children and the court-appointed trustee attempt to hold Keith Harper accountable for his actions as trustee for the missing woman’s estate since her disappearance in June 2020.

In November, Riverside County Judge Russell Velasquez removed Harper as trustee because he contacted realtors and appeared to be trying to sell or “hypothecate” Abram’s real estate (hypothecate can also mean to use as collateral for a loan.) He gave Harper until Dec. 21, to provide an accounting of his trusteeship. He also imposed sanctions of $1,500 but stayed them until the December hearing.

This week, Harper’s attorney, Rob Schelling, was granted a continuance until Jan. 15, 2024, with attorneys for the court-appointed trustee Richard Munro as chief executive of his Invenz Inc, agreeing to this.

Schelling, in his declaration, stated that he had been doing his “best to gather the information requested and provide it to” the court-appointed trustee, but had “encountered a great deal of difficulty in getting much of the information from Mr. Harper.” He submitted what he had Nov. 21.

On Dec. 1, Harper called Schelling’s office and “stated that he felt we had reached an impasse in our working relationship and that he wanted to pick up his entire file.”

Schelling emailed him a Substitution of Attorney form and arranged a time for Harper to pick up his papers. When Harper arrived, he said that Schelling’s assistant had “misconstrued his message and that he was not firing him and would not sign the substitution form.” They “had a long discussion concerning his requirements as a trustee” and complying with the court’s order.

The declaration continues that Dec. 6, Harper called the office to say he was “going out of state for a family matter and that he would be gone a ‘long time.’” Harper told the attorney that he would not return until the 18th at the earliest and that “it would be necessary for him to go to Colorado to retrieve all the supporting documents needed …” which would take another 10 days.

So it appears Harper will enjoy a holiday season free from legal filings and court appearances. He still has until the end of January to comply with the eviction notice that the court-appointed trustee served him with at Abrams’ Bonita Vista Ranch.

Harper was the last person to see Abrams before her disappearance and surprised her friends and family when he identified himself as her fiancée. This surprise intensified when it was discovered that Abrams had apparently named him as the trustee, along with her friend Diana Fedder, of a new trust she created two weeks before disappearing.

Mortgage statements submitted with a March 2021 petition to compel production of accounting and removal of Harper and Fedder as trustees showed that the loan payments on Abrams’ ranch and a house on Tool Box Spring Road began to fall in arrears after her disappearance.