Records show Anamarie Ávila Farías tried to have her mother placed under conservatorship. She dropped it once she gained control of disputed properties.
AnaMaria Ávila Bugarin had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in bills for psychological evaluations, legal costs and fiduciary fees to prove what seemed obvious to most of the people around her: She didn’t have dementia.
But one of her daughters claimed she couldn’t take care of herself. Ávila Bugarin wanted to show she didn’t need a court-appointed conservator.
So the 76-year-old showed up impeccably dressed for her final exam with a neuropsychologist in September 2018, according to court records. Tearful and distraught, she explained how a quarrel over real estate had destroyed her family and landed her in a fight for the most basic human right, records show. First, she claimed, her daughter had hit her as their property dispute boiled over. Then, her daughter petitioned to get her declared incompetent.
Such ugly family battles can be common in California. What makes Ávila Bugarin’s story unique is that the person who tried to strip her of her autonomy is now Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, who sits on her chamber’s eldercare committee — the legislative body that’s supposed to protect seniors.
CalMatters reviewed the case as part of our ongoing investigation into California’s conservatorship system, which is designed to protect the vulnerable by taking control of their lives and finances. Previous stories have shown that weak oversight by the state’s Professional Fiduciaries Bureau and the courts has allowed the system to be used against the people it’s supposed to protect.
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Records on file at the Contra Costa County Superior Court show that before Ávila Farías rose to become an assemblymember, she faced a temporary restraining order for elder abuse after allegedly hitting her mother and ended her conservatorship attempt only after her mother agreed to sign over real estate in a settlement agreement.
The records also reveal that Ávila Farías and her husband have filed for bankruptcy three times on behalf of themselves and their company since 2011, and the assemblymember provided a vastly different explanation of the property in question to the courts than she did to the Fair Political Practices Commission.
Melissa Brown, an elder-law professor emeritus at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, said Ávila Farías’ attempt to place her mother in conservatorship looks like “a weaponization of the process.”
Ávila Farías would not comment on details of the case, citing a confidentiality agreement that was part of the case’s settlement. But she said she plans to introduce legislation on the issue because of her experience in the case, “hopefully next year.” She didn’t provide specifics about the focus of the legislation.
Her spokesperson, Roger Salazar, said in a written statement that there “has never been a judicial finding that Anamarie Farías engaged in any wrongdoing.”
“California conservatorship proceedings commonly involve complex family dynamics,” he said.
He pointed out that she has since been named a conservator for another family member, which “reflects the court’s independent determination that she satisfied the legal standards required to serve in a fiduciary capacity.”
Her other family members also declined to comment for this story, citing the confidentiality agreement, or didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Nick Miller, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, said the speaker was not aware of the temporary restraining order or the conservatorship petition when he appointed Ávila Farías to the committee.
Ávila Farías grew up in Martinez, where she served on the city council and the Contra Costa County Board of Education. She was on the board of directors for the California Housing Finance Agency from 2015 to 2024, during the court battles. Two years ago, voters sent her to the state Assembly with the endorsement of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In 2024, the Fair Political Practices Commission received complaints that Ávila Farías had not disclosed all of her economic interests for several years. The commission closed an investigation in 2025 after she amended her forms, disclosed reportable economic interests and completed the commission’s educational course.
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