Nichelle Nichols | Lt. Uhura’s Conservatorship Drama

I’m Mike Hackard with Hackard Law. We represent beneficiaries in estate, trust and elder financial abuse litigation cases throughout California.

Celebrity estate battles hit the news with regularity, the most recent prominent case featuring Britney Spears’ efforts to break free from an oppressive conservatorship.

But there’s been another conservatorship drama unfolding, this time around Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series.

Nichols, who is 88 and suffers from dementia, was placed under the conservatorship of her son, 70-year-old Kyle Johnson.

And that’s where the conflict flares up. Despite Nichols’ objections, Johnson moved his mother out of her longtime home in Woodland Hills, California, to a house in New Mexico.

Nichols’ former manager, Gilbert Bell, says that Johnson is “intimidating” his mother and her friends in order to sell off her assets.

But Johnson counters that he is only protecting his mother from Bell, whom he accuses of elder financial abuse through years of controlling her finances.

Then there’s the actress’s good friend Angelique Fawcett, who is taking legal action to visit Nichols after Johnson cut off access to his mother.

The latest news is that Nichols’ home in Woodland Hills, where she had lived since 1982, has been sold for 2.2 million dollars.

In these situations I often recommend a mediated solution – get each side talking and eventually come to a reasonable compromise.

It saves time, money and heartache.

We’ll have to wait and see how this battle plays out in court, but we can only express our hope that Nichols gets the care she needs, and that her interests and well-being are protected.

Hackard Law: Attorneys Making a Difference.