FORMAL COMPLAINT — GUARDIAN AD LITEM CONDUCT

I. Introduction

Foster S.B. Friedman holds a Guardian ad Litem certification issued by the Supreme Court of Virginia, authorizing him to represent and protect incapacitated persons in legal proceedings. This complaint requests that the Court evaluate whether Mr. Friedman’s conduct, as described herein, is consistent with the obligations and standards associated with that certification. The conduct at issue includes his role as drafting attorney for estate instruments controlling the assets of an incapacitated person, his service as Guardian ad Litem in connection with that person, his communications with the complainant, and his actions and omissions while the complainant’s mother, Gaétane Gagnon, was reportedly being deprived of prescribed cardiac medication and later died. Based on the facts known to and witnessed by the complainant, and on the records identified in this complaint, the complainant asserts that Mr. Friedman is unfit to hold Guardian ad Litem certification for incapacitated persons.

II. Background — The Death of Gaétane Gagnon and the Question of Capacity

Gaétane Riverin Gagnon was an advanced cardiac patient. In 2019, she suffered a cardiac arrest in Sitges, Spain, and underwent emergency surgery at Hospital Del Mar, where medicated stents were placed in her main artery. Treating surgeons advised that without adherence to her prescribed cardiac medications, taken as ordered, she faced a high risk of death within approximately twelve months.

Upon returning to Bulfinch Square, Alexandria, Virginia, her husband, Pierre Paul Gagnon — a physician who had left the practice of classical medicine — did not provide her prescribed cardiac medications as directed. He represented to family, neighbors, and medical providers that the medications were “rat poison.” During this same general period, according to the complainant’s personal observations and the reports of others in proximity to him, Pierre Paul Gagnon exhibited behavior consistent with significant cognitive decline. His statements, memory lapses, and decision-making — including his assertion that prescribed cardiac medications were “rat poison” and his management of Gaétane Gagnon’s care — raised serious questions about his own capacity to make sound and informed decisions regarding her medical treatment and financial affairs. These events were reported by Valérie Gagnon to Alexandria Adult Protective Services (APS), which opened a case and generated file W023408-050124, a 475-page government record. The City of Alexandria has declined to disclose that file to the complainant, despite two formal FOIA requests submitted by her.

III. Friedman’s Role — Drafting Attorney and Instrument of Control

Foster S.B. Friedman served as personal drafting attorney for Pierre Paul Gagnon. He drafted both the Gaétane Gagnon Trust and the Pierre Paul Gagnon Trust, which were estate planning instruments that provided Pierre Paul Gagnon and Mr. Friedman effective control over the assets of Gaétane Gagnon. Mr. Friedman was not a neutral third party with respect to the estate structure; he was the attorney who designed the legal framework governing the disposition and control of Gaétane Gagnon’s estate at a time when, according to the complainant, she was an advanced cardiac patient dependent on prescribed medication and when her husband was exhibiting behavior consistent with significant cognitive impairment. In these circumstances, a competent attorney and Guardian ad Litem should have recognized and evaluated whether the individual to whom effective control was being granted possessed the capacity to make sound decisions in the best interests of the incapacitated person.

Mr. Friedman subsequently served as Guardian ad Litem in connection with matters involving Gaétane Gagnon, while also being the attorney who had drafted instruments giving him and her husband control over her estate. During this period, according to the complainant’s reports, Gaétane Gagnon was not receiving her prescribed cardiac medications, and Pierre Paul Gagnon continued to make statements and decisions that raised questions about his own capacity to act as a reliable decision-maker for her. The complainant considers the combination of Mr. Friedman’s roles — drafting attorney for estate instruments and Guardian ad Litem for the same incapacitated person, without ever raising or addressing concerns about the husband’s capacity — to reflect a significant conflict of interest and a failure to meet professional obligations owed to an incapacitated person.

IV. Friedman Threatened Valérie Gagnon — Do Not Come

When Valérie Gagnon, daughter and sole heir of Gaétane Gagnon, learned that her mother was allegedly being deprived of prescribed cardiac medication and was gravely ill, she prepared to travel to Alexandria to intervene and seek appropriate care. According to the complainant, Mr. Friedman telephoned her directly and instructed her not to come to Alexandria.

According to the complainant, this instruction was delivered in a verbal telephone call from Mr. Friedman, the attorney with legal authority and practical control over aspects of Gaétane Gagnon’s estate, to the daughter seeking to assist her mother. The call is supported by phone records showing a call from Mr. Friedman’s number to the complainant. The complainant is prepared to attest under oath to the substance of the conversation. There is no written correspondence documenting this instruction. The incident is also described in the public record maintained at bulfinchsquarealexandriava.com.

V. APS File W023408-050124 — The Government Record of Abuse

Before traveling to Alexandria, the complainant contacted Dr. Scott Leaf, a personal friend of Pierre Paul Gagnon, and provided him with a detailed account of her mother’s medical history, the alleged medication deprivation, and the warning given by the Spanish surgeons. According to the complainant, Dr. Leaf acknowledged receipt of this information and advised that he could not take further action. The complainant is not aware of any subsequent intervention by Dr. Leaf regarding these concerns.

All of the foregoing events were personally witnessed, experienced, and reported by Valérie Gagnon, including her reports to Alexandria Adult Protective Services, which opened case W023408-050124 in 2021 and generated a 475-page government file. Despite being the complainant who initiated that case, Valérie Gagnon has been denied access to that file following two separate FOIA requests. The complainant’s knowledge of the underlying abuse derives from what she personally observed, heard, and reported. Her knowledge of the APS file is limited to its existence, its approximate length, and the City of Alexandria’s refusal to produce it to her. Notwithstanding these limitations, when the complainant arrived in Alexandria and VITAS palliative care nurses assessed Gaétane Gagnon, they confirmed that she was not taking her prescribed cardiac medications, consistent with the complainant’s prior reports.

VI. The False Arrest — The Instrument of Exclusion

The complainant did not travel to Alexandria without prior efforts to secure assistance. She states that she contacted the City of Alexandria to request that her mother, Gaétane Gagnon, be registered for palliative care and that those efforts were unsuccessful. While residing in Portugal, and with her mother reportedly being deprived of prescribed cardiac medication, the complainant repeatedly called Mr. Friedman, as the attorney with control over Gaétane Gagnon’s estate and the authority to assist in arranging care. According to the complainant, Mr. Friedman did not answer these calls, did not return them, and did not assist in securing palliative care. With the City declining to register her mother and Mr. Friedman unresponsive, the complainant flew from Portugal to Alexandria, Virginia—across the Atlantic Ocean—at her own expense and on her own initiative to pursue palliative care registration for her mother in person. Medical documentation from Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain — where Gaétane Gagnon received treatment — is publicly available and constitutes part of the evidentiary record supporting this complaint.

Medical documentation from Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain — where Gaétane Gagnon received cardiac treatment following her 2019 cardiac arrest — established that her survival was contingent upon strict adherence to her prescribed cardiac medication regimen. That documentation is publicly available and constitutes part of the evidentiary record supporting this complaint. Pierre Paul Gagnon withheld Gaétane Gagnon’s cardiac medications. Approximately thirteen months after the Hospital del Mar documentation was issued — precisely consistent with the medical warning it contained — Gaétane Gagnon’s condition had deteriorated to the point that she was dying. It was at this point that Valérie Gagnon, residing in Portugal, registered her mother with VITAS Healthcare. She flew from Portugal to Alexandria at her own expense to complete the registration in person. She was present when Gaétane Gagnon signed the intake documents. Upon commencing services at the Bulfinch Square residence, VITAS Healthcare discovered that Gaétane Gagnon was receiving none of her prescribed cardiac medications. VITAS Healthcare confronted Pierre Paul Gagnon. He ceased withholding the medications. Pierre Paul Gagnon’s cessation of this conduct was not driven by solicitude for his wife’s welfare. Rather, it was driven by the fact that VITAS Healthcare’s presence in the home meant his conduct had been discovered—and he did not wish to be accused of causing her death. From that point forward, he did not interfere with her medications again. Gaétane Gagnon survived. The complainant believes this sequence — the medical warning, the withholding of medications, the deterioration, and VITAS’s discovery — is documented within APS file W023408-050124, the 475-page government record that has been withheld from Valérie Gagnon despite two formal FOIA requests.

VII. Termination of Palliative Care and Destruction of Medical Records

Hospital del Mar in Barcelona issued a written medical warning that Gaétane Gagnon would survive only if she took her prescribed cardiac medications as directed; that document is incorporated herein by reference and is available on this site at the following evidence page: /barcelona-hospital-documents-the-medical-evidence/.

Subsequent to the issuance of that warning, Pierre Paul Gagnon withheld Gaétane Gagnon’s prescribed cardiac medications, and approximately thirteen months later—consistent with the Hospital del Mar prediction—her condition had deteriorated to the point that she met the eligibility criteria for admission to palliative care.

At that time, the complainant, Valérie Gagnon, was residing in Portugal; the City of Alexandria declined to assist with palliative care registration, and Foster S.B. Friedman did not respond to the complainant’s telephone calls, whereupon the complainant traveled from Portugal to Alexandria at her own expense for the sole purpose of arranging and completing her mother’s palliative care registration.

The complainant personally registered Gaétane Gagnon with VITAS Healthcare and was present when Gaétane Gagnon executed the intake documents, following the prior certification by a cardiac specialist that Gaétane had a prognosis of six months or less to live, which certification was a prerequisite for VITAS admission; VITAS thereafter provided palliative care services at the Bulfinch Square residence for approximately four weeks, during which period VITAS personnel determined that Gaétane Gagnon was not receiving any of her prescribed cardiac medications, confronted Pierre Paul Gagnon regarding the withholding of those medications, and, following that confrontation, observed that he ceased withholding the medications and did not again interfere with their administration, not, in the complainant’s assessment, out of concern for Gaétane Gagnon’s welfare but because he did not wish to be held responsible for her death, and Gaétane Gagnon survived.

After that sequence of events, VITAS Healthcare discontinued services at the Bulfinch Square residence; when the complainant contacted VITAS Healthcare, she was informed that she was under investigation for abuse of her mother and that she had no right of access to her mother’s file, and VITAS Healthcare has since stated that no intake documents exist for Gaétane Gagnon despite the complainant’s presence when those documents were executed; the complainant does not know the full contents of Adult Protective Services file W023408-050124 and knows only that it exists, that it is 475 pages in length, and that it has been withheld from her notwithstanding two formal FOIA requests, and she states that the foregoing events are documented within that file; further, to the complainant’s knowledge, Foster S.B. Friedman, as the attorney who controlled Gaétane Gagnon’s estate and served as her Guardian ad Litem, took no action to ensure that Gaétane received her prescribed cardiac medications, to investigate the withholding of those medications, or to address the termination of palliative care services. This Office is respectfully requested to inquire into Mr. Friedman’s awareness of these circumstances and his failure, if any, to act in his principal’s interest.

This Office is respectfully requested to investigate whether Foster S.B. Friedman had any knowledge of, or role in, the events described in this section.

On July 16, 2025, Gaétane Gagnon died in Alexandria. The complainant was not present. She reports that she was unable to cross the border from Canada because an arrest warrant arising from the incident reported by Dr. Leaf remained active. At the time of her death, Gaétane Gagnon was an individual whose estate was controlled by instruments drafted by Mr. Friedman. The complainant, whom Mr. Friedman had previously instructed not to come to Alexandria, was unable to be at her mother’s bedside due to the unresolved legal consequences of the arrest.

APS file W023408-050124, consisting of approximately 475 pages generated after the complainant reported the alleged abuse of her mother, remains withheld by the City of Alexandria. This is so despite two formal FOIA requests submitted by the complainant who initiated the APS case.

VIII. Why This Conduct Disqualifies Friedman as Guardian ad Litem

A Guardian ad Litem is appointed to protect incapacitated persons and to act in their best interests when they cannot advocate for themselves. Certification by the Supreme Court of Virginia reflects a determination that the holder can be entrusted with these responsibilities. The complainant asserts that Mr. Friedman’s conduct, as described and documented in this complaint, is inconsistent with those responsibilities and raises serious concerns about his fitness to hold Guardian ad Litem certification for incapacitated persons.

• He drafted estate instruments that gave him and Pierre Paul Gagnon effective control over the assets of an incapacitated, medically vulnerable individual while she was allegedly not receiving her prescribed cardiac medications.
• He communicated a verbal instruction by telephone to the complainant, the incapacitated person’s daughter, advising her not to come to Alexandria when she sought to intervene on behalf of her mother.
• He did not, according to the complainant, take action to address the reported deprivation of prescribed cardiac medication while serving as the legal architect of the incapacitated person’s financial affairs.
• He maintained control over the incapacitated person’s estate through instruments he drafted, during a period in which she ultimately died without her daughter present and, as confirmed by VITAS palliative care nurses, without taking her prescribed cardiac medications.

In view of the foregoing, the complainant asserts that Mr. Friedman should not continue to hold Guardian ad Litem certification and should not be appointed to represent incapacitated persons. The complainant further notes that the risks to incapacitated persons are compounded by the City of Alexandria’s continued withholding of the 475-page APS file W023408-050124 from the complainant who initiated the case and whose mother died following the circumstances she reported.

IX. Relief Requested

The complainant respectfully requests the following relief from the Office of the Executive Secretary:

1. Immediate suspension of Foster S.B. Friedman’s Guardian ad Litem certification pending a full and impartial investigation of the facts described in this complaint.
2. Permanent revocation of the certification upon a finding that the material facts set forth herein are accurate and substantiated.
3. Formal referral to the Virginia State Bar for disciplinary investigation and proceedings based on the same conduct and underlying facts.
4. Formal referral to appropriate authorities concerning the continued withholding of APS file W023408-050124 by the City of Alexandria, Virginia, notwithstanding two formal FOIA requests by the complainant.
5. Any further relief this Office deems appropriate and necessary to protect incapacitated persons from potential harm arising from the conduct described in this complaint.