Giants great Cepeda mired in family legal fight
A legal fight has divided the family of retired San Francisco Giants great Orlando Cepeda, with one of his daughtersinlaw seeking to be named his conservator while the Hall of Famer accuses her in a court document of filing the petition to cover up “elder financial abuse” that has left him with no assets.
In a petition to the Contra Costa County Superior Court filed May 29 and obtained by The Chronicle, Camille Cepeda asked a judge to give her the authority as conservator to make all of Orlando Cepeda’s financial and medical decisions. She claims he has dementia, which he disputes in his response.
Camille Cepeda is married to Cepeda’s youngest son, Ali, who along with one of his three brothers supports her bid for conservatorship, according to the petition.
It declares that Cepeda “has been diagnosed with dementia. ... His mental condition prevents him from being able to properly provide for his personal needs for physical health, food, clothing or shelter, and he is at risk of being unduly influenced.”
However, Cepeda filed a response through his attorney on June 4 that appears to bear his signature and disputes the notion that he is incapable of making his own decisions. The filing cites two psychiatric evaluations, the most recent on May 21, that concluded he was able to make his own medical choices and all but the most complex financial decisions, such as securing a mortgage or car loan. Camille Cepeda’s petition said she will provide the court with an evaluation of Orlando’s mental capacity from a licensed physician or psychologist prior to the next hearing, Aug. 12.
The response also calls the
timing of Camille Cepeda’s filing “highly suspicious” and a “preemptive litigative tactic” to conceal her own alleged financial misdeeds. Those include “numerous shocking, unauthorized charges” and cash withdrawals that Camille Cepeda allegedly made from Orlando Cepeda’s accounts after she was granted power of attorney when he was placed into a medically induced coma for three days more than two years ago.
According to Cepeda’s brief, the alleged purchases ranged from the mundane, such as groceries and insurance, to what the filing calls “luxury items” from Louis Vuitton and Nordstrom, wine club memberships and carlease payments. The filing also cites cash withdrawals totaling $15,000 in December alone.
The court documents do not say how much money Cepeda claims he is missing.
Neither Camille Cepeda nor her attorney answered messages seeking comment.
Amanda Ebey, the attorney representing Cepeda and wife Nydia, said her clients did not want to comment for this story, but “they wanted me to relate that they’re very sad.”
“They’re sad that it’s come to this, and they’ll let the court work out what the court works out.”
Cepeda, 82, is a foundational pillar in San Francisco Giants history. The former first baseman and outfielder, a Giant from 195866, was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1999.
On Feb. 19, 2018, he was rushed to a hospital in Solano County after he collapsed in the parking lot of his gym.
He experienced what then was described as a “cardiac event,” alternatively reported since as a heart attack or stroke. He also hit his head on the pavement and, according to his court filing, sustained some oxygen deprivation to his brain.
Cepeda’s prognosis was grave, but he slowly recovered and has appeared at a handful of Giants events at Oracle Park, able to walk and have conversations.
However, Ali Cepeda filed a declaration that his father needs a conservator “due to his cognitive decline,” and that he supported his wife’s petition to assume that role.
A hearing was held in Martinez on June 4 on Camille Cepeda’s request for temporary conservatorship while the permanent conservancy petition is adjudicated. That was not granted.
Cepeda is asking the court to name his wife as conservator if the court deems that he needs one. Nydia was Cepeda’s second wife and the mother of two of his four sons, Malcolm and Ali. They were married from 197585.
They reconnected when she came to California to help him recuperate in 2018 and remarried in December. Orlando’s third wife, Mirian, died in 2017 after 26 years of marriage.
Orlando and Nydia Cepeda live in a small apartment in Pleasant Hill. Ali and Camille live nearby in Martinez.
Cepeda’s filing says he and Nydia went to the bank after their remarriage to see the status of his accounts and “were shocked to learn there were no assets left.”
His lawyer sent a demand to Camille Cepeda to supply an accounting of his assets, the filing says. It added that she did not respond and as a result was removed as attorneyinfact.
Camille Cepeda’s filing said her fatherinlaw has no personal property but $232,000 in annual income from pensions, wages and publicassistance benefits. The Giants continue to employ Cepeda as an ambassador.
Cepeda stated in his June 4 filing that he hopes “to settle this as a confidential family dispute,” so for now he is not pursuing any criminal or civil complaints regarding the assets he believes are missing.
It said he obtained financial documents directly from his banks that revealed withdrawals by Camille Cepeda that he said he did not authorize.
“She has refused to account for her actions under a power of attorney and all evidence points toward shocking elder abuse,” his response concludes. “She resents that Mr. Cepeda remarried because her fraud will be revealed. She refuses to come clean with an accounting. She refuses to turn over assets and property despite formal demands.”