Source: WENN.com / WENN
Former Star Trek star Nichelle Nichols is in the middle of a conservatorship battle, similar to what Britney Spears has been going through recently. Two people are fighting for conservator status for Nichols, who suffers from dementia, and trying to save her from her manager who they feel has been taking advantage of her, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Her son, Kyle Johnson, filed for conservatorship back in 2018, on the grounds that his 88-year-old mother being vulnerable to exploitation by her manager Gilbert Bell. Johnson had filed for conservatorship after learning that Bell put his mother’s home in his msme as her power of attorney. Bell has been living in her guest home since 2012.
After Johnson successfully filed for conservatorship, her longtime friend Angelique Fawcette intervened and filed an objection. Fawcette filed on the grounds that Nichols deserved to live in her home, which she purchased in 1983.
After Johnson became his mother’s sole caregiver, Bell’s power of attorney status was revoked and the home was put back into Nichols’ name. Things really got messy when Bell then sued Johnson in 2019, after accusing him of trying tob evict him and Nichols so he could sell the home. Johnson them filed a countersuit against Bell in 2020, and accused him of theft, fraud and elder abuse. In Johnson’s lawsuit, it stated that his goal was to “hold those responsible to account, ensure his mother’s financial stability, health and comfort, recover what has been stolen from her, and ensure a safe, secure, and enjoyable future in the coming years.”
This year, the home was sold to a reconstruction company for $1.22 million.
Fawcette feels that neither Bell or Johnson have Nichols best interest in mind.
“Her son was absent from her life for six years,” Fawcette told The Hill. “He missed Nichelle’s birthdays, Mother’s Days, Thanksgivings and Christmases. It was heart breaking to watch.”
She added that Bell had been leeching off of Nichols are making purchased in her name.
“Gil was the gatekeeper, fiercely controlling Nichelle’s financial affairs and her person,” she said. “He allegedly used her money to upgrade the home he lived in on Nichelle’s property, and bought new cars while Nichelle’s house sat in decay. He even contemplated marrying Nichelle, so that her son would be denied his inheritance.”
Nichols lives with Johnson and his wife in New Mexico.
