Catherine Areu Jones, a left-wing pundit who once regularly appeared on Fox News, has been charged with a range of crimes after allegedly defrauding her elderly mother of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Fifty-one-year-old Jones, who also went by the name Cathy Areu, is accused of kidnapping her 88-year-old mother, involuntarily placing her in an assisted living facility, and then stealing more than $200,000 from her, according to multiple outlets, including WTVJ and WBFS-TV.
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Once known as the “Liberal Sherpa,” Jones used to be a frequent guest on Fox News, where she would often explain to Tucker Carlson the leftist opinion on controversial topics.
Some of the most infamous stances Jones took included letting babies decide their gender and not changing a baby’s diaper without their consent.
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As The Blaze notes, in July 2020, Jones filed a complaint against Carlson and other Fox News hosts alleging sexual harassment, but her case was ultimately thrown out.
She is now facing a range of charges, brought forward on Friday by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
The charges include: exploitation of the elderly, organized scheme to defraud, conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, kidnapping, false imprisonment and fraudulent use of personal identification.
Reports indicate that Jones was first accused of elder abuse in 2019, when someone reported her to the Department of Children and Families.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said in a press release that Jones “involuntarily place[d] her mother in assisted living facilities so that she could take financial gain of her mother’s banking account.”
Jones did this by telling her mother that they were going to go get ice cream with her grandchildren. But she instead took her to an assisted living facility and told staff that her mother suffered from dementia.
After her mother called someone for help, Jones allegedly ordered staff to take her mother’s phone away and to make sure that she had no visitors.
Her mother was eventually released after facility staff and personnel from DCF determined that she did not have dementia as her daughter claimed.
Jones and a co-conspirator later forced her mother into a different facility, reports indicate. This time, a neighbor called police about the incident and a judge issued a warrant for Jones’ arrest in June.
Jones was able to evade capture during that time by reportedly moving around, and even went to Mexico at one point.
She was ultimately arrested on Friday and is being held without bond.
Authorities believe Jones stole a total of $224,000 from her mother by using credit cards in her name and withdrawing money from her bank accounts.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.