A former Fox News regular who served as a liberal foil to Tucker Carlson has been arrested in Florida on multiple charges including allegedly kidnapping her elderly mother who she reportedly also scammed out of over $200,000.
On Friday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced that 51-year-old Catherine Areu Jones aka “Liberal Sherpa” had been arrested on multiple felony charges including “exploitation of the elderly, organized scheme to defraud, conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, kidnapping, false imprisonment and fraudulent use of personal identification,” NBC 6 South Florida reported.
Areu Jones, a journalist who worked under the name of Cathy Areu was arrested and held without bond at the Miami-Dade jail on the charges stemming from an investigation that began in 2019 when she was reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families for exploiting her now 88-year-old mother.
The accusations include Areu Jones physically dragging her mother from her home to involuntarily place her in an assisted living facility and bilking her out of at least $224,000, including money from her reverse mortgage and bank accounts and the opening of credit cards in her name, according to investigators.
“Miami-Dade police detectives had been trying to arrest her since June, when a judge signed a warrant for her arrest. According to a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office press release, she is believed to have been evading arrest and even took off to Mexico for a time,” according to the Miami Herald.
(Video: NBC 6 South Florida)
“She is also accused of using a revoked power of attorney to twice involuntarily place her mother in an assisted living facility ‘in an attempt to gain control over her mother’s financial assets,'” the Miami Herald reported, citing a press release. “Prosecutors say that on the first occasion, Areu admitted her mother to a facility after making the woman believe she was going on an ‘ice cream outing’ with her granddaughters, who are Areu’s children.”
“When the mother tried calling someone for help, Areu told the facility to stop her from using a phone or getting visitors, prosecutors said. On a second time, Areu and a cohort are accused of dragging the elderly woman from her home and transporting her to another facility. Alarmed neighbors called police after seeing the woman’s shoe in the driveway and the front door open, police said,” according to the outlet.
During her stint at Fox News, Areu Jones frequently appeared with Carlson.
(Video: YouTube)
“Every incident of alleged elder exploitation or abuse touches our heart and never fails to shock us. It seems particularly harder to understand when the alleged perpetrator of the exploitation is a daughter, or a son or another blood relative,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement. “Too often, these abuses occur behind closed doors, out of the public’s eye. We, here in MiamiDade County, utilizing all the resources of my State Attorney’s Office Elder Exploitation Task Force and the Miami-Dade Police Department, will not allow these transgressions to go unnoticed and unpunished. Not in our community.”
Alfredo Ramirez, the Miami-Dade Police Director said in a statement. “It is heartbreaking to see one of our most vulnerable victims abused physically, psychologically or financially. Our elderly community paves the path of the future, to ensure we can enjoy our present.”
“It is our responsibility as a community to show appreciation for their dedicated efforts of ensuring that we have what we have today. We must continue to work together, as the elderly community depends on us to protect them,” Ramirez added.
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