FLINT, MI -- A judge ordered "American Idol" finalist and Flint native LaKisha Jones to turn herself into the Genesee County Jail for failing to pay her father's nursing home bills after she was named his legal guardian.
Genesee Probate Judge Jennie Barkey ordered Jones to serve 45 days in the county jail Friday, Jan. 9, after she was found guilty of civil contempt of court. Barkey gave her until Jan. 16 to turn herself in to the jail.
Jones failed to show up for Friday's court hearing. Her attorney, Christopher J. Ebbott, said his client was unable to attend the hearing because she was at her Texas home caring for her two sick children.
Barkey said Jones could avoid jail time by paying the more than $5,000 she still owes to one of her father's nursing homes and another $2,000 in attorney fees for a lawyer Barkey had to appoint to represent Jones' father.
Ebbott declined to comment on Barkey's ruling, adding that he needed to consult with his client.
Barkey told Jones in February 2014 she has 60 days to catch up on the missing payments or she could be sentenced to time in the Genesee County Jail. Ebbott filed a motion for reconsideration, which Barkey denied, but the judge gave the singing star nearly a year to pay the debt after the contempt conviction.
"It was her obligation," Barkey said.
Jones, 34, was granted full guardianship of her elderly father Aug. 7, 2012, after he was released from Hurley Medical Center in June 2012 following a stroke, according to court records.
The guardianship required Jones to pay the monthly bills for her father's care at a Flint skilled nursing facility after doctors told the court her father was unable to reasonably understand his condition.
However, a court-appointed advocate for her father reported to the court in July 2013 that Jones' father was involuntarily discharged from the facility after Jones failed to pay nearly $6,500 for her father's care.
He was placed at a new facility in April 2013, where again Jones fell behind in making payments for her father, according to court records. A billing representative from the facility testified in February that Jones still owed more than $1,600 to the facility.
Jones made payments in March and April 2014 to settle her account with one of the facilities, but Barkey said records showed she was still behind on paying off the second account.
Ebbott told Barkey that Jones sent him $1,500 in money orders in April to help pay down the debt, but he held them until December as he attempted to develop a repayment plan with the facility.
Jones was responsible for paying $987 per month for her father's nursing home care at the most-recent facility. Her father receives $1,047 monthly in Social Security benefits. Jones said in February she paid $550 per month toward rent at her father's apartment, medical bills and $20 every two weeks for his haircuts and shaves.
She was unable to provide the judge with any receipts for the expenditures, although she was not initially required to keep an accounting of her expenditures as part of the guardianship.
Barkey questioned why Jones continued to pay for an apartment even after the judge made her the guardian for a man who could no longer care for himself.
"I never dealt with someone that was sick before," Jones told the judge.
Jones, in February, denied stealing any of her father's money.
Jones finished fourth in 2007 on the sixth season of American Idol and completed a three-month stint on Broadway as a cast member of "The Color Purple."
She returned to television in 2013 in a preview of NBC's "And The Winner Is," a new show that paired the music competition of shows such as "Idol" with the betting of "The Price Is Right."
Jones said she was vying for the $1 million prize to help move her hospital-bound father to Texas to live with her. However, she was eliminated from the show after declining a $10,000 offer to concede.