Township Council Hopeful is Accused of Raiding Estate of Client With Dementia for at Least $850K

As Clarksboro resident Joy Lippincott aged and slipped into dementia in recent years, she increasingly depended on a small group of people to manage her affairs, including her two daughters, a lawyer and her accountant, Hamilton resident and future council candidate Robynn Dumont.

Lippincott, who is now 85, had considerable assets in her name, court documents indicate. The handling of her care and finances led to a dispute between the two daughters, and eventually the wholesale raiding of her bank accounts and investments by Dumont, according to allegations in a civil complaint filed in Gloucester County.

Lippincott’s daughter Sandra Carty had initially sued her sister in April 2010, alleging the sister had taken advantage of their mother by coercing her to make financial decisions.

In February 2012 she amended the suit to add Dumont, accusing the accountant of making suspicious financial transactions and transferring at least $850,000 and possibly much more from Lippincott, who “had diminished mental capacity and was vulnerable to coercion and undue influence.”

According to Carty’s civil suit, her sister and Dumont worked in tandem “wrongfully transferring, dissipating, converting and encumbering the assets of Ms. Lippincott.” And when a judge ordered Dumont to pay back a sum of money to Lippincott, Dumont allegedly bounced checks, leading to the filing of a criminal complaint against her.

At about the time Dumont was added to the civil lawsuit in February, the Hamilton Democrats announced she was one of their candidates for a seat on Township Council.

“I want to make what difference I can,” she said at the time.

“She has single-handedly dissipated the life savings of an 85-year-old woman who is incapacitated in her home,” Celano [Lippincott's court-appointed guardian] said. “She’s an absolute scoundrel. There’s probably no sanctions stiff enough, but I’d be satisfied if she was sent to prison for a few years.”

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Hamilton Council Hopeful Robyn Dumont Accused of Raiding Estate of Clarksville Client With Dementia for at Least $850,000