“The daughter of the late John Amos has reportedly hired a lawyer to investigate lingering questions over her father’s death.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
Shannon Amos has retained James H. Davis III, Esq., to look into a number of concerns she still has about her father, from his time in a hospital prior to his passing to a complaint she filed over concerns her dad was the possible victim of elder abuse, according to TMZ.
The Good Times star died on August 21, aged 84, but his death was not announced until October 1 when Shannon, 58, and other members of her family say they were left blindsided at finding out the devastating news through the media.
Her brother Kelly Christopher ‘K.C.’ Amos, 54, had been the only family member in contact with John in the months leading up to his death, following a public feud which saw her previously accuse her sibling of elderly abuse.
Shannon, a co-trustee in her father’s estate, reportedly remains concerned about why he was placed in a medical facility and wants to learn when exactly he was admitted to Centinela Hospital Medical Center, the Los Angeles facility he died at.
She is also seeking clarity about why her father was dropped off at the hospital by someone who wasn’t his caretaker.
At the time, her father was being looked after by K.C., however Shannon alleges her dad was taken there by someone falsely claiming to be his ‘daughter.’
Shannon previously accused Amos’ publicist Belinda Foster of pretending to be his daughter the night of his death. Foster later clarified Amos was ‘like a father’ to her and that he referred to her as his daughter.
Shannon also has questions surrounding the state of her father’s health and medical condition when he entered the medical center.
She believes the hospital has not been cooperative with her in her attempts to learn about how he was faring just before his passing.
Shannon’s attorney claims none of the three formal requests his client made for her father’s medical records with the hospital have been acknowledged.
The alleged silence has only added to Shannon and her attorney’s concerns about her father and what may have allegedly occurred during his last days at the facility.
Shannon is also seeking to learn if the Adult Protective Services agency was rigorously investigating possible elder abuse on her father as far back as February 2024, after she filed a complaint.
She is also not convinced that the LAPD investigated the circumstances into her father’s passing.
In a statement, her lawyer told TMZ: ‘The family deserves to know the full circumstances surrounding Mr. Amos’ care and the events that led to his passing. We are committed to pursuing all available avenues to ensure that these questions are answered.
‘Ms. Amos and her legal team emphasize the importance of transparency in healthcare and the rights of families to access critical medical information. The investigation will continue to seek answers and accountability in this deeply personal and significant matter.’
Amos – best known for roles in Roots and Good Times – passed away on August 21, though it wasn’t reported until October 1, with members of his family revealing they had no idea about his death until it was reported.
Several members of Amos’ family – including daughter Shannon and god daughter Amy Goudy – released a statement claiming her brother KC Amos had isolated the actor from the rest of his family.
Shannon recently told TMZ that she believes her brother KC, Belinda Foster, and Eugene Brummet had Amos’ will changed before his death.
While KC hasn’t publicly addressed these claims, Foster has refuted the family’s claims.
Shannon first said in the interview that they couldn’t find any paperwork naming Foster as her father’s official publicist.
She added that KC, Foster and Brummett were all living with her father, and called them all, ‘grifters’ who came into her father’s life at her brother’s request.
‘We believe that the three of them conspired together to take advantage of my father, who was diagnosed in 2016 with Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia,’ she said, adding she has it in writing from the hospital.
However she said that Amos ‘bounced back’ and was ‘doing really well until about 2022,’ which is when they realized he ‘couldn’t really take care of himself.’
Her brother KC moved in at that point, and then, ‘started making allegations that a caregiver was stealing money from him.’
Her father was cremated nine days after his death – which the family had no knowledge of until recently, and when asked what the motivation is to shut her and the rest of the family out and to have him cremated just nine days after his death, she said she thinks there are, ‘many reasons’ at play.
She added that he had, ‘the best insurance’ through the actors union SAG-AFTRA and he should have been at Cedars-Sinai, but instead they just dropped him off at a hospital in Inglewood, which she said makes, ‘no sense.’
Shannon adds they are going to ‘seek a police investigation,’ adding that she heard from a doctor, her father’s primary care physician, that when her brother moved in, he was withholding medication.
She added that he was also battling cancer and he was supposed to go in for cancer treatments but that never happened.
When asked about her father’s will and if it had been changed, Shannon said that her uncle was in charge of his estate, adding, ‘he had to do five wills because my brother would come in… he would get him to sign paperwork and he would undo everything.’
She added her uncle was ‘constantly’ having to re-do the wills, adding she has a statement from her brother that she ‘made him sign’ after her mother’s passing, that he, ‘knowingly manipulated my father, had him change wills and that he… could not ever have my father sign a document again without family members being present and he still was able to accomplish that.’
Belinda Foster has since Shannon’s claims her father was a victim of elder abuse in a statement to People.
‘I represented John Amos for over 30 years as his publicist of record. The media knows this along with John’s agencies of record. Over the years we grew close to one another to the point of a familial relationship,’ she began.
‘In the last few years, he often referred to me as his “daughter.” This was not a fraud by John, K.C., or myself. He was like a father to me. I deeply mourn his passing,’ she said.
‘Shannon’s claims that John was abused are false. K.C., Eugene and I, along with numerous others cared for him,’ she said, referring to claims of elder abuse Shannon put forth in 2023.
‘On several occasions when Shannon claimed that he was abused, law enforcement authorities sat with John and confirmed his well being,’ Foster added.
Foster adds that the same 2023 allegation of elder abuse was the reason why KC didn’t tell the family that John died, because it would have violated a court order.
‘At the time of John’s passing, K.C. was under a strict no-contact order from the Superior Court of New Jersey based on the Complaint that his sister Shannon brought against him in 2023,’ Foster said.
‘As a condition of his Pretrial Release, K.C. is precluded from making any contact with Shannon directly or indirectly by phone, social media, or any method of communication,’ she said.
‘At the time of his death, John was concerned that Shannon might turn his death and interment into a circus as she had done with other aspects of his life. It was John who requested the delay in announcing his death to Shannon and the rest of the world,’ Foster insisted.
Foster added that she is sorry Shannon has, ‘chosen this path’ and added, ‘Medical authorities have interviewed him in the last year and found him to be mentally sound.’
‘For the sake of preserving John’s well-earned reputation as a superb actor and a community activist, we hope we can put to rest these nonsensical claims that Shannon is offering out of her own pain as a result of estrangement from her father,’ she concluded.