Eifrig’s lawyer, Richard A. Boren, asked for the contempt ruling based on new information he received a couple of days ago from Ardito’s Virginia lawyer. It was part of an accounting that Boren had demanded on behalf of his client from Ardito, the former co-trustee of her mother’s trust who also had power of attorney for her elderly mother. Gibney removed her from those roles in June -- after deciding that neither of Eifrig’s daughters should have control over her person and money. Eifrig’s affairs are now being managed by a court-appointed guardian, lawyer Paula M. Cuculo.

Over the past few months, Boren has submitted evidence to Gibney showing that Ardito had taken more than $300,000 of her mother’s money -- a large chunk of her life savings -- from her mother’s trust and deposited it in accounts in her own name, without ever disclosing to Boren or Cuculo that the money existed.

In September, Ardito returned $251,183.27 of the money and at that point agreed to repay another $5,000 more, which hasn’t been forthcoming.

In court today, Boren said that Ardito actually owes $16,000 more to her mother -- not merely $5,000. Copies of canceled checks he received on Monday show that on three separate dates, Ardito used her mother’s money -- in violation of Gibney’s orders -- to pay Virginia lawyer James Philip Head in her battle to wrest of her mother away from Cuculo and earlier, her older sister.

Head sued Eifrig and Cuculo as part of Ardito’s effort to regain control over her mother and her money but the lawsuit was dropped recently as part of an attempt to settle the ongoing litigation between Eifrig and her Virginia daughter.

Cuculo said in court today that Eifrig is very much “mentally aware” of what has been going on and is disgusted. Cuculo said that Eifrig has told her she wants to amend her will again to make Ardito a lesser beneficiary. Cuculo said the new will is to be drafted within the next week and that the bulk of Eifrig’s estate will now go to her older daughter, Suzette Gebhard, of Warren.

Gebhard, former president of the Rhode island League of Women Voters and a one-time democratic congressional candidate here, was charged with obstruction of justice (and later acquitted) after she moved her mother to Rhode Island from Virginia in 2006 and secreted her in her house, refusing to let anyone visit. The police had to break down Gebhard’s door to gain access to the retired schoolteacher. After a brief hospitalization, Eifrig was moved to Capitol Ridge, on Smith Street, where she currently resides. She has testified that she wishes to remain there.

Currently, Ardito is barred by the court from visiting her. Gebhard goes to visit her mother two or three times a week. Today, Cuculo asked Gibney to allow Gebhard to take her mother out for excursions in the community -- which the court has prohibited since Eifrig’s removal from Gebhard’s home. The judge said she would mull that over but before she made a decision, she wanted to have an off-the-record meeting with Gebhard.