Suffolk News-Herald

Convicted puppy scammer Monica Binkley is now facing child abuse charges.

A grand jury on Monday handed down six felony indictments charging Binkley, 35, with one count of parental abduction and five counts of felony child neglect.

In July, the Suffolk dog breeder was found guilty of four counts of defrauding puppy buyers and one count of writing a worthless check.

Binkley – known to many of her puppy buyers as Monica Arnold – made the national spotlight last December after she fled to Texas with a U-Haul trailer filled with more than 50 puppies, most of which had already been sold. She took her two young children with her.

During the July trial, several of the 29 people who testified against Binkley said she had told them her daughter was receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

During the trial, Binkley testified that her daughter had a type of cancer and that she went to Texas last December seeking additional treatment for her child, who had been treated by physicians at the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters.

During the trial, Binkley also said her daughter has several other illnesses -including an auto-immune disorder, asthma, allergies and epilepsy.

The new charges stem from her taking the children to Texas and her alleged negligence of her daughter’s true medical condition, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Marie Walls. Although the child, now 10 or 11, does suffer from an illness, she has neither cancer nor epilepsy, Walls said.

Binkley, due to be sentenced Friday on the puppy scamming charges, could receive up to five years on the newest round of charges. She could get up to 85 years on the puppy scamming charges.