Photo by Sarah Rumpf.
New information about the criminal history of Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Ohio Democratic nominee for governor, Amy Acton, is coming to light amid the backlash about her appearance in a Vivek Ramaswamy ad — including her conviction for animal neglect after several kittens in her care died in a hot car.
GOP nominee Ramaswamy released an ad this week featuring Arthur lambasting her daughter as a “liar” and urging viewers not to vote for her. Acton has publicly spoken about her troubled childhood for years, well before she ran for office, including the reason her mother lost custody when she was 12: documented neglect and abuse, and, most horrifically, Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, sexually abusing her for years. Arthur sided with her husband against her daughter and the two have not spoken since she lost custody.
The ad drew swift and vociferous condemnation from a chorus of bipartisan voices, with many prominent conservatives declaring the ad made them more sympathetic towards Acton, but President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and others defended the ad.
National Review, Politifact, and other media outlets dug up the legal documents confirming Acton’s story, and several other media outlets have found other court records pertaining to Arthur.
Both Donna and Cledith Arthur were convicted of felony theft by deception in Pennsylvania in 1996, state court records show, Politifact reported. Donna Arthur also had a prior conviction for the same offense in 1995, according to Newsweek.
There’s also a troubling case from 2021 in which Arthur was convicted of animal neglect.
According to court documents, Arthur “was found to be keeping several cats and/or newborn kittens in a locked and filthy vehicle, with the windows rolled up, on an unseasonably warm spring day, and with an internal vehicle temperature of one-hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit.”
An employee with a local animal rescue group had been tipped off about Arthur’s car and the cats living in it, and notified authorities. She testified that the car had been parked on an asphalt parking lot with the windows rolled up. A police officer testified at trial that Arthur’s car had been “packed with stuff,” there were six cats and kittens in the car, a laser thermometer get a reading of 120 degrees Fahrenheit inside the car, and he felt “a wave of heat release” when the vehicle was opened.
One of the kittens had already died, and the mother of the kittens had previously escaped, according to trial testimony. The remaining four kittens, said to be five days old, were removed from Arthur’s car and the rescue group attempted to care for them. They were so young they had to be bottle-fed every two hours. Court records add that “the smallest of them was unable to be saved and ultimately passed away, likely from heat exhaustion.”
Arthur was convicted of animal neglect and sentenced to a fine, probation, and was prohibited from having any animals while she was living in her car. She appealed the conviction on denial of counsel grounds. An appellate court found a procedural error had occurred, vacated the conviction and sentence, and remanded it back to the trial court for further proceedings.
Note, however, that this was not a situation where the case was overturned on the merits. The appellate judge’s opinion detailed the evidence presented at trial, and noted that Arthur had admitted she was living in her car with the cats, but insisted the car was not too hot, accused the police officer of being rude and shouting at her, and claimed she was being stalked.
“However, in light of other credible evidence and testimony to the contrary, the court found [Arthur] to be not credible,” the opinion stated.
Ramaswamy’s campaign has doubled down in their defense of the ad featuring Arthur, has continued to make statements calling Acton as a “serial fabulist,” and has dropped at least $4 million dollars to air the ad on television across Ohio.
Pictured above is Ritzi, a rescue kitten adopted by the author. Support your local animal shelters and rescue groups.
The post Amy Acton’s Estranged Mother Killed Kittens, Court Records Show first appeared on Mediaite.
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