Gabriella Fields told me she made a terrible mistake, trusting government advice almost a decade ago.
That one decision has reverberated and put her into another California conservatorship nightmare.
In 2012, she and her mom, Elli Biro, signed a durable power of attorney (DPOA), giving Gabriella power to make certain decisions on her mom’s behalf.
In 2016, Gabriella told me that a bureaucrat from the California Public Guardian’s Office (CPGO) told her that the DPOA was worthless, and that in order to make decisions, she needed to put her mom into conservatorship.
That’s what happened and the CPGO became the conservator.
Things went relatively smoothly while CPGO was the conservator, Gabriella stated.
No one complained about her behavior while Gabriella visited her mom.
Then, in 2022, claiming they were stretched too thin, the CPGO relinquished control and Gabriella’s niece Brianna Dinnen was made the conservator.
Ms. Dinnen did not respond to an email for comment.
Brianna was made the guardian in early 2022, and on July 15, 2022, Dinnen filed an elder abuse restraining order (EARO). According to the application, Dinnen alleged that Gabriella was calling in bogus complaints to police and others.
Gabriella told me that she never made that many calls, never made a frivolous call, and the complaint she made against the facility where her mom was staying was substantiated. Below is part of that report.
Evert didn’t respond to an email left at her law firm’s website.
First, it took a long time to get to court. While the EARO was filed on July 16, 2022, the hearing wasn’t held until February 7, 2023.
Gabriella told me that things were constantly delayed, and the EARO against her kept being extended temporarily.
At the hearing, the star witness was Gabriella’s mom. Evert quizzed Elli about not wanting to see her daughter. Elli claimed that Gabriella had taken her cars without permission, and as a result, she did not want to see her.
The testimony is bizarre for many reasons. First, the incident her mom is referring to happened over a decade ago where she received some cars instead of payment for funeral expenses she initially paid for.
More than that, Elli’s testimony is meandering and often incoherent: like below.
Beyond that, Biro was considered incapacitated by the court; if she’s incapacitated, she’s not fit to testify.
Gabriella told me the situation was made even worse because the same judge, Jacqueline Jackson, was the one who deemed her incapacitated in 2016.
Lastly, according to a police report, Brianna had a habit of coaching Elli about these allegations.
“I heard O/Dinnen remind O/Biro that she said she did not want to see O/Fields.” the police report stated.
Despite that, the court granted Brianna the EARO, based largely on Elli’s testimony. Below is part of an appeal’s court order summarizing this order.
Gabriella told me that her mom had dementia, but the court rejected that claim, stating no evidence to substantiate the claim was presented.
Gabriella said she did submit evidence, and she provided me the declaration in which a doctor diagnosed her with dementia.
Though the EARO has expired, Gabriella told me the reverberations continue.
The California Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (EADACPA) has draconian punishment for someone who has or had an EARO.
She said she has lost state funding to take care of her special needs daughter; furthermore, she told me with the EARO, Gabriella was powerless to stop malfeasance by Brianna as the conservator.
That malfeasance will be the subject of a future article.
Brianna was removed as conservator earlier this year, Gabriella has a hearing on August 28, 2025, to be named conservator, though this EARO will be a hindrance.
