GoFundMe Launched To Raise Funds For Star Trek Legend Nichelle Nichols’ Elder Abuse Lawsuit
Jorge Arenas
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A GoFundMe page has been opened to help Star Trek legend Nichelle Nichols raise money for her ongoing elder abuse lawsuit against her former manager.
The GoFund me page was started by Nichelle Nichol’s sister, Marian Smothers, on behalf of the Star Trek actress.
Nichols is currently entrenched in an going legal battle with her former manager, Gilbert Bell.
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According to the GoFundme, Bell infiltrated Nichols’ life beginning in 2010, on the premise that “he was a producer and that he was developing a feature film in which he hoped to have Nichelle co-star as well as be a 50-50 partner in the enterprise and its profits.”
Bell would continue to “[insinuate] himself into her life”, most egregiously by moving into a “property adjacent to her residence” and “compelling Nichelle to pay all his utilities”.
Smothers asserts that, in 2013, “Bell took advantage of the situation to obtain her signature on medical and general Powers of Attorney,” as well as “fees from her many personal appearances, and even her pension and Social Security.”
That same year, Nichols was diagnosed with dementia and short-term memory loss.
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Bell “later deeded her personal residence into his name.”
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Smothers states that this “was the final act that triggered the Petition for Conservatorship eventually granted to her son, Kyle Johnson.”
Since Johnson “returned to Los Angeles to be Nichelle’s full time caregiver and subsequently, Conservator of her Person and Estate” in 2018, Smothers claims Bell “has slandered Kyle’s good name in numerous publications.”
Johnson, as many remember, was at the center of some controversy last year when a video surfaced of his mother screaming for help during an altercation.
In the video, which depicts Johnson’s attempt to take his mother home, he can be heard telling Nichols, “Mother, we’re going home,” to which Nichoes starts to yell, “Hell! No! No!…Get your hands off me…You’re trying to get rid of me!”
However, Smothers clarifies that this was a “staged encounter” and notes that Bell “[released] the video to media outlets and the LAPD, and filed suit demanding the continued fraudulent possession of her adjacent property under onerous terms.”
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Smothers and Nichols’ family “believe that Bell has taken financial advantage of Nichelle to the tune of well over a million dollars, but we have only scratched the surface.”
The GoFundMe page concludes with an endorsement of the campaign and message of support from fellow Star Trek: The Original Series actor Walter Koening.
Koening states that Nichols “has been a true and loyal friend for over fifty years” who “has been financially abused by a person pretending to protect her interests.”
He urges everyone who knows what a beautiful person she is to support the GoFundMe established in her name.
The GoFundMe has currently raised $64,110 from over just over 1,700 donors. The campaign is aiming to raise $100,000.
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