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.
Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías on the floor during a session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on May 28, 2026. (Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)
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.
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.
Speaker of the California State Assembly Robert Rivas on the State Capitol grounds in Sacramento on March 14, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
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.
Recently, she introduced a bill that would ban some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees from becoming police officers and teachers in California. A watered-down version of the bill passed the Assembly and is now in the Senate.
Federal immigration agents arrest a man in Bell as residents clash with U.S. Border Patrol agents after a traffic collision involving one of the agency’s vehicles during immigration raids across the Los Angeles area on June 20, 2025. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Ávila Farías sits on the Assembly’s Aging and Long-Term Care Committee and is running for a second term in the Legislature.
Before her ascent in state politics, Ávila Farías and her husband tried their hand in real estate, leaving behind a trail of bankruptcies and questionable property transfers, court and property records show.
Their family strife centered on three properties: the family home that Ávila Farías purchased with her mother and sister, which they rented to a tenant; Ávila Farías’ permanent home; and another rental property.
In August 2008, Ávila Farías and her husband gifted the three properties to the lawmaker’s mother, Ávila Bugarin, property records show. In court filings, Ávila Bugarin maintained she had no idea she’d been given ownership of two of the properties. Ávila Farías told the court that her mother was aware of the transfers.
About three months after the transfers, the couple signed a $2.3 million business loan agreement. They defaulted on the loan about 18 months later, according to court filings, and the couple’s real estate company filed for bankruptcy in September 2011, eventually turning over ownership of an unrelated property to the lending company.
The bankruptcy case was dismissed in April 2012.
Years later, Ávila Bugarin said that she discovered her daughter “was behind on her mortgage” on the family home, according to the court investigator’s report. It was then, Ávila Bugarin said, that she started researching the properties, and she learned that her daughter had placed the two other homes in her name.
Ávila Bugarin told the court investigator she also learned that her daughter had taken out loans against the family home. Ávila Bugarin, who spoke limited English, told the court investigator that she signed the bank documents for the loans, thinking she was refinancing the home, not borrowing against it.
She refused to deed the two properties back to Ávila Farías, saying she’d have to get the family home back first.
The police eventually got involved.
In February 2018, according to court records filed by Ávila Bugarin, Ávila Farías stormed into her apartment, yanked the telephone from her mother’s hand and hit her wrist.
The mother filed for a temporary restraining order, asking for protection for herself and her daughter who lived with her, Judith Ávila, which a judge granted. Judith Ávila corroborated her mother’s account in court filings.
Ávila Farías denied the allegations, saying her mother slapped her instead.