She has become a local celebrity during the coronavirus pandemic. She is currently charged with two felonies.

A Maplewood woman who gained media praise and political support for her COVID-19 relief efforts has been charged with two felonies in St. Louis County.

Shanna Jones, 46, was indicted by a St. Louis County grand jury on March 20 on charges of forgery and filing a false document. Her charges were not made public until Wednesday, when Jones was arrested.

Jones is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond. Court records did not list an attorney. She is scheduled to appear in court on May 17th.

Jones’ criminal history outside of Missouri dates back 20 years and includes four previous felony convictions.

The false document charge is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Forgery is a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Officials said the document charges relate to allegations that Jones failed to disclose correct information when running as a candidate for Maplewood City Council in October 2021, including past felony convictions. She was ultimately elected in 2022.

The forgery charge alleges that in June 2022, while Jones was a City Council member, he illegally signed a lease in the name of another Maplewood resident “with intent to defraud.”

The investigation that led to this indictment began in the summer of 2022, first initiated by federal authorities and then completed by the Maplewood Police Department.

In October 2022, Maplewood Police presented the case to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.

Bell’s affairs continued until January, about 15 months after Maplewood police filed their findings and about a month after the Post-Dispatch first wrote about Jones’ criminal history and pending civil case. There was almost nothing to do.

Jones, also known as Poole-Jones, came into the spotlight during the 2020 pandemic shutdown. Local newspapers and television stations, including the Post-Dispatch, followed by some national broadcasters, covered her grassroots efforts.

Most notable was Jones’ Grab N Go Table, which he set up in the front yard of his Maplewood home to provide free food and other items to people in need.

One of Jones’ early political backers was Democratic District 5 County Councilwoman Lisa Clancy. Clancy, a Maplewood resident, called Jones an “inspiration” and helped pass a council resolution honoring Jones.

In 2021, several Maplewood leaders encouraged Jones to run for City Council, with Clancy joining as a campaign ally.

Jones won the April 2022 election with support from Mayor Nikilan Knapper and campaign support from City Manager Amber Withicombe, then the Maplewood-Richmond Heights school board member.

However, Jones resigned from her City Council seat just five months later after stories surfaced in the community about her past felony convictions for forgery and fraud.

Most of her supporters in Maplewood quietly left Jones, and the City Council accepted her resignation without disclosing anything about her past.

Last month, Jones appeared on KTVI (Channel 2) to promote a new relief effort currently based at New Life St. Louis Church in Bridgeton. She said her nonprofit organization, Keep Pushing Inc., plans to hold the event again this year.

The Rev. Aaron Batchelor, the pastor who appeared on KTVI with Jones, has not returned messages left by the Post-Dispatch with the church’s receptionist.

In recent years, Jones has also been named as a defendant in several civil lawsuits alleging that he owes money.

In January, Jones was named in two lawsuits filed in St. Louis Circuit Court.

In a lawsuit filed on January 5, plaintiff Keisha Williams alleges that her organization, Empower 2 Move, provided crisis intervention and incident management services at the shelter Jones ran in south St. Louis. He claimed that he had agreed to provide the

The agreement, reached in December 2022, called for Jones to pay Williams’ group $56,000 annually. The lawsuit claims the money came from a federal emergency services grant administered by the city of St. Louis.

Jones retired from running the Gravois shelter in March 2023, according to the lawsuit. In Williams’ lawsuit, he sought $2,800 in unpaid fees and $2,200 in punitive damages.

The lawsuit was dismissed by agreement of both parties on Aug. 8, according to court records.

Another civil lawsuit was filed Jan. 17 by Horizon Technologies, which claims the nonprofit Jones Keep Pushing paid $3,700 for tile and flooring work done at a rented space in St. Louis. claims that there was not.

Jones’ first felony conviction was in 2004 in Clayton County, Georgia. According to court records, Jones pleaded guilty to three counts of felony forgery and one count of felony identity fraud.

She was sentenced to three years in prison for each forgery charge and one year in prison for the fraud charge, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Jones pleaded guilty to one count of felony forgery in 2019 and was sentenced to two years’ probation in North Carolina’s Pitt County Superior Court, a spokesperson said.

Jones has also lost several recent civil lawsuits.

• In June 2022, Dobbs Tire and Auto won a $2,512 judgment against Jones.

• In August 2022, the Missouri Department of Employment Security obtained a $1,032 judgment against Jones’ nonprofit organization.

• In June 2023, a $6,217 judgment was entered against Jones and an additional $6,217 judgment against Keep Pushing. The lawsuit filed by Kalinga Productions involved commercial space in Maplewood.