The #FreeBritney Movement Now Trying To Help Former “Star Trek” Star Claiming Elder Abuse
Two months after Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship, #FreeBritney supporters are now speaking up in the case of 89-year-old Nichelle Nichols, one of the first Black women to hold a leading role on television with her portrayal of Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series. Nichols, who suffers from dementia, was placed under a conservatorship in 2018, giving her only child control of her life and finances. BuzzFeed News reported Kyle Johnson argued his mother’s condition made her susceptible to exploitation in filing for legal guardianship, which gives him the power to “decide who she sees and where she lives.”
But Nichols’ friend, actor-producer Angelique Fawcette, claims Nichelle is being abused. She says Nichols was managing her affairs with help from an assistant before Johnson sold her Los Angeles home and moved her to New Mexico against her wishes. She says there’s evidence in a 2019 audio recording obtained by WGCL in which Nichols protests against the conservatorship while screaming at Johnson to “get your hands off of me.” “You’re trying to get rid of me,” she cries. Additionally, in a September 2020 deposition, a former court-appointed conservator of the estate, BJ Hawkins, claimed Johnson made demands “not in the best financial interest or other interest of the conservatee,” threatened to hurt Hawkins, and tried to keep Nichols from appearing in court.
