Marie-Alice Dibon
A public administrator may be appointed in the five-year-old case of a slain French woman whose estate has been in limbo since 2019 unless the county supplies one, District Judge Tod Young said on Tuesday.
Attorney William Peterson represents Alice Marie Dibon’s 86-year-old mother Jacqueline, who is the principal beneficiary of the estate and has been waiting for her inheritance for more than five years.
“The judge wants to know who is stepping in and when,” Peterson told The Record-Courier on Tuesday. “He wants to know next week and if (he’s) not satisfied may appoint someone of his choice, which he can do.”
There is still $1.3 million in accounts associated with Alice Marie Dibon’s estate, according to attorneys in court Tuesday.
“We’re almost back to square 1,” attorney Justin Clouser told Young.
Clouser said that he’s meeting with county officials to learn where they are in the process of finding an administrator after elected public administrator Steve Walsh resigned in December.
County commissioners approved an ordinance on Feb. 6 that eliminates the position from the ballot and brings it in house. That ordinance didn’t take effect until Thursday. Meanwhile the county is advertising to hire a person to take on the role. That position closes on March 4, though the notice says the county may take action to hire someone before then.
Dibon was killed by her significant other and her body was found on April 22, 2019, in a Parisian river. The man accused of killing her was also her immediate heir and died a few weeks later when he was hit by a truck. She owned a condo and a corporation in Douglas County.
Clouser and Peterson said they feared it would be another year before the estate could be settled.
“We are at the mercy of the process,” Peterson said.
In addition to the estate, there are six years worth of tax returns that have yet to be filed.
The 2018 taxes in the case have finally been filed, but there’s a lot of work ahead, and that may require an appointed administrator, Young said.
Young said he may appoint an administrator if the county doesn’t.
“I want you to place the county on notice that they are responsible for the administrator not doing his job,” Young said.
Young said the county might just have to pay for an administrator to catch up on the case.
County officials said they believe they couldn’t intervene with Walsh because he was an elected official.
Douglas County commissioners appointed Community Services Director Brook Adie to serve as the interim public administrator.
However, Young pointed out he never appointed Adie to serve as administrator on the Dibon case, which is a requirement in order handle the estate.