KEY WEST -- A Monroe County judge has ordered a former Marathon Manor nursing home employee to be arrested and jailed for contempt of court.

Maricel Perez-Guevara, who is accused in civil court of misappropriating more $150,000 from a 102-year-old former resident of the nursing home, did not show up for a sentencing hearing at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West Friday afternoon.

That didn't stop County Judge Tegan Slaton from imposing sentence and ordering a warrant for her arrest. Once incarcerated, she is to remain in jail until she produces bank records and financial statements that could provide information on how she used the funds of Elizabeth Davis.

Perez-Guevara, 38, has ignored subpoenas to produce those records since early this year.

Davis granted Perez-Guevara power-of-attorney privileges over her finances in early 2005 while she was a resident and Perez-Guevara an administrator at the now-closed Marathon Manor. Just as with a traditional attorney-client relationship, those granted power-of-attorney are required to act in the interest of the granter.

Though Perez-Guevara's contempt hearing comes from a civil court case, she's also the subject of an active investigation by the Monroe County State Attorney's Office. That probe follows a 2006 and 2007 Monroe County Sheriff's Office investigation which alleged Perez-Guevara used her access to Davis' finances as a $400,000 windfall, including buying sprees for everything from all-terrain vehicles to a Rolex watch.

In 2005 and 2006, Perez-Guevara spent $264,000 on herself using Davis' money and just $33,000 on Davis, mostly for fees to Marathon Manor and then to Plantation Key Convalescent Center, where Davis was moved in late 2005, police allege.

Davis has been mentally incompetent at least since the second half of 2005, her doctor Joanne Mahoney reportedly told a detective.

SAO investigator Anthony Pizzo said he expects to have his probe ready for review by a prosecutor in the coming days.

rsilk@keysnews.com

Staff writer Adam Linhardt contributed to this story.