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By Tanya Dennis
When Dr. Laura Dean Head left this earth, she left her estate to the person who had been the most loving to her, Zakiya Folami Jendayi.
Head’s former student from San Francisco State University, Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister, mentee and friend had known each other for 28 years. During that period, Head had been estranged from her two sisters.
Not only giving Jendayi power of attorney, Head also made her longtime friend her agent of advance health care, trust administrator, trustee of her estate and sole beneficiary. Head disinherited her two sisters and included a no-contest clause in her trust.
These decisions did not occur in a vacuum: Head told her best friend Dr. Derethia DuVal that she wanted Jendayi to inherit her property and belongings. Head also told the Kaiser Hospice social worker Jenna Noe that she was leaving her belongings to Jendayi.
Head passed away on June 19, 2013. Jendayi took four years to remodel Head’s residence and moved into the home in 2017.
Seven years after Head’s death, her sister filed a petition on May 18, 2020, to invalidate the trust for “undue influence and or forgery.” The Head sisters, Della Hamlin and Helaine Head, when asked for comment, did not respond.
Alameda County Probate Court Judge Sandra K. Bean initially tentatively ruled in the first hearing Aug. 5, 2020, that the sisters were not beneficiaries or trustees, therefore they had no standing.
The sisters’ counsel Daniel Leahy changed the allegation to financial elder abuse, in the second hearing but never amended his petition, or brought the issue of financial elder abuse up throughout the trial.
During the second hearing on May 10, 2021, Bean changed her ruling and scheduled a trial that was supposed to take four days but instead lasted for 18.
Fifteen witnesses testified and not one testified that there was undue influence, according to Jendayi.
Head’s estate planning attorney Elaine Lee entered a declaration, was deposed, and testified during the trial in 2022 that Jendayi had nothing to do with the establishment of the will and trust. Attorney Lee testified, “I met with Dr. Head alone, as well as with Ms. Jendayi and I did not find Head to be a victim of fraud or undue influence.”
Bean then ruled on March 28, 2023, that Head had not lacked mental capacity and there was no forgery but that Jendayi “unduly influenced Head to leave her estate to Jendayi.” When the court-appointed attorney Phillip Campbell was asked for comment, he did not respond.
Bean’s ruling invalidated the trust, taking all of Head’s assets, the car, house, retirement, and investments valued over $2 million, which is likely to end up going to probate attorneys for fees and to the sisters, who Head disinherited. When Head sisters’ attorney Daniel Leahy was contacted, he responded “I cannot comment on an ongoing court case.”
Jendayi decided to appeal the decision and hired attorneys Griffin Schindler and James Decker who filed the appeal on April 17, 2023.
Griffin filed the appeal based on “1. The evidence is insufficient to justify the verdict or other decisions, 2. The verdict or other decisions are against the law, and 3. There was error in the law, occurring at trial and excepted to by the moving party.“
“I am filing a complaint against the judge because Bean withheld evidence supporting my position that there was no undue influence,” Jendayi said. “She added false evidence against me, and Bean’s demeanor towards me was hostile and bias with Bean stating “The court observed the respondent’s strong, authoritative manner throughout trial which the court finds would influence a person in Dr. Head’s state.”
Jendayi is reaching out to more than 100 African American respondents who have had the similar experience of losing their estates because of Bean’s, other judges, commissioners, attorneys, and court reporters’ actions against them. Next month Jendayi and other respondents will present their information before the County Board of Supervisors and then possibly a class-action lawsuit.
“Dr. Head and I had attorneys in 2013; we did the right thing,” Jendayi says. “The Creator has directed me to fight for my ancestor’s descendants who have also had their estates stolen.
“Unfortunately, our stolen legacy is standard operating procedure within the probate judicial system. I will continue to fight the injustice within the justice system until I am victorious,” Jendayi said.
Although Court appointed attorney Phillip Campbell has filed a petition for Jendayi to surrender all the assets she remains in the home.
