LOS ANGELES (CA)
Courthouse News Service
By KEVIN KOENINGER
LOS ANGELES (CN) – An elderly widow claims in court that a Catholic priest defrauded her of $284,000 after her husband died.
Michalena Jones, 79, sued The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles and Father Peter Valdez, in Superior Court.
Jones claims that Valdez befriended her after her husband died in 2003, then “enticed her” to give him $160,000 to buy himself a house.
That done, she says, “Valdez wrongfully placed his name [on] various checking accounts in which Jones had funds” and paid his mortgage out of those joint accounts until 2010.
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