Nicole and Robert Hamilton: My Account
My name is Valerie Gagnon. This is my account of my dealings with Nicole Hamilton and Robert Hamilton, real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, and their role in the events surrounding the sale and effective loss of my family home at 511 Princess Street in Alexandria, Virginia.
I have known Robert Hamilton since the early 1980s. I have known his second wife, Nicole Hamilton, since the early 1970s. They were long-time friends of my parents, Dr. P.P. Gagnon and Gaetane Gagnon. For decades, the Hamiltons were part of the social circle around my family in Alexandria.
In the late 1990s, Nicole and Robert Hamilton became real estate agents. From that time forward, it was understood within my family that when 511 Princess Street was sold, Nicole and Robert Hamilton would represent my parents in that sale. The property was valued at approximately $2,100,000 USD. This was not a casual understanding; it was the standing plan discussed over years, based on the long-standing relationship between my parents and the Hamiltons and the trust my parents placed in them.
Foster Samuel Burton Friedman is the attorney who drafted the GG Trust — the instrument that controls the $4,000,000 estate including 511 Princess Street. He named himself sole Trust Protector, giving himself unilateral power to modify the trust, remove the trustee, and direct distributions. He then notarized the document himself — a likely violation of Virginia Code § 47.1-14. He inserted a no-contest clause stripping the sole beneficiary, Valerie Gagnon, of her entire inheritance if she challenges his conduct in court. This is the man the Hamiltons chose to defend. What made the Hamiltons’ silence unforgivable was that Valerie was not only warning them about a fraudulent trust — she was warning them that her father, Dr. P.P. Gagnon, had become severely demented and was actively withholding Gaetane Gagnon’s cardiac medications. Gaetane had a documented cardiac history. Valerie begged them to listen. They refused. Her mother died in 2025.
For context: 511 Princess Street was not just an asset. It was my parents’ home and the core of my expected inheritance. I had every reason to believe that, consistent with prior discussions, I would inherit that property or its equivalent value. That expectation was grounded in years of conversations with my parents, not in wishful thinking, and it remains unresolved today: 511 Princess Street has still not been sold, and my mother, Gaetane Gagnon, died in 2025 without that expectation ever being honored.
At some point, a man named Foster Friedman insinuated himself into my parents’ circle of friends. Over time, he became a regular presence. I later learned that he had drafted a trust instrument for my parents. In that trust, he named himself the sole executor and trustee of what was supposed to be my inheritance.
When I eventually saw the effect of these documents, it became clear to me that, under the influence of Foster Friedman, my father, Dr. P.P. Gagnon, had effectively disinherited me from 511 Princess Street. The house that had always been represented as part of my future had been redirected through a trust structure controlled solely by Foster Friedman.
My view of Foster Friedman, based on what I observed and what followed, is that he is a con artist and a crook. That is my characterization of his conduct toward me and toward my parents. I came to believe that his role in drafting and controlling the trust was not neutral or disinterested, but self-serving and predatory.
Once I understood that the trust drafted by Foster Friedman had effectively cut me off from 511 Princess Street, I tried to act. Given the long-standing understanding that Nicole and Robert Hamilton would represent my parents in the sale of that property, I saw them as crucial gatekeepers. I believed that, at a minimum, they had a duty—moral if not legal—to be informed of what was happening and to avoid participating in a transaction that furthered what I saw as undue influence by Foster Friedman over my parents, especially over my father.
I attempted to contact Nicole and Robert Hamilton and to warn them. I tried to present them with evidence of what Foster Friedman had done and of the trust arrangement that left him in sole control of my inheritance. I approached them not as strangers, but as people I had known for decades, who had benefited socially and professionally from my parents’ friendship and trust.
The Hamiltons never listened. They refused to look at the evidence I tried to present. They did not take my concerns seriously, or, if they did, they did not acknowledge it to me. They would not meaningfully engage with the documents or facts I put before them about the trust drafted by Foster Friedman and its practical effect of cutting me off from 511 Princess Street.
In the midst of this, I learned that Nicole and Robert Hamilton had become friends with Foster Friedman. The man I regarded as a con artist and a crook—who had placed himself as sole executor and trustee over my inheritance—was now socially aligned with the very real estate agents my parents intended to trust with the sale of their most significant asset.
Each time I tried to warn my mother, Gaetane Gagnon, about Foster Friedman—about his role in the trust, about his control over my inheritance, about his influence over my father—Nicole and Robert Hamilton came to his defense. They did not act as neutral observers or cautious professionals; they positioned themselves as defenders of Foster Friedman in conversations with my mother.
Instead of taking my concerns as a daughter seriously, the Hamiltons aligned themselves with the man who had placed himself in sole control of my inheritance. By defending him to my mother, they helped to reinforce his position and to marginalize mine. Their responses made it harder for me to protect my own interests and to protect my parents from what I viewed as manipulation and undue influence.
This is formal notice: Nicole Hamilton and Robert Hamilton of Coldwell Banker are hereby placed on notice that Valerie Gagnon does not consent to any sale of 511 Princess Street in Alexandria, Virginia, pending resolution of the undue influence that has compromised her parents’ decision-making regarding that property. The property remains unsold. Gaetane Gagnon, Valerie’s mother, passed away in 2025 without the promised family discussions regarding her inheritance ever being resolved. The trust instrument drafted by Foster Friedman—in which he named himself sole executor and trustee—has not been addressed, challenged, or remedied.
Nicole and Robert Hamilton are explicitly warned: If you proceed with facilitating, listing, marketing, negotiating, or completing any sale of 511 Princess Street without first documenting and addressing the undue influence exerted over Valerie’s parents—and specifically without addressing Foster Friedman’s fraudulent positioning as sole executor and trustee in a trust instrument he himself drafted—Valerie Gagnon will pursue legal action against you for COLLUSION IN UNDUE INFLUENCE and will hold you jointly and severally liable for damages flowing from that collusion.
You were warned. You chose not to listen when Valerie presented you with evidence of the trust arrangement that cut her off from 511 Princess Street. You chose to defend Foster Friedman in conversations with Gaetane Gagnon. You chose to continue exerting influence toward a transaction that Valerie had explicitly told you she regarded as the product of undue influence and fraud. You made those choices with full knowledge of the consequences Valerie specified. Those choices have legal consequences.
This public notice stands as documentation of formal warning to Nicole Hamilton and Robert Hamilton. Their names, their documented conduct in defending Foster Friedman, their refusal to engage with evidence of undue influence, and their continued participation in a transaction built on a fraudulent trust instrument are part of the factual and legal record. They cannot claim ignorance. They cannot claim they were not warned. Any further action on their part to facilitate a sale of 511 Princess Street will be treated as deliberate participation in a conspiracy to deprive Valerie Gagnon of her rightful inheritance through undue influence, fraudulent trust structures, and coordinated pressure on an aging parent.
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