ISLINGTON, St Mary — The late former firebrand talk show host and attorney-at-law Antonette Haughton-Cardenas will be laid to rest on Saturday, June 17 at the St Cyprian church in Highgate, St Mary.

A thanksgiving service was held for her on May 16 in Philadelphia, United States where she had spent her days in exile. A small gathering of friends and family attended the service where her son, Cheik spoke fondly of her.

The remains of the controversial St Mary native will be interred in the Haughton family plot in the community of Martin. Haughton-Cardenas was the only daughter of the late Ken Haughton, former politician and president of the All-Island Cane Farmers.

She shot to national prominence in the 1990s as a controversial talk show host who championed the rights of the vulnerable. Then in 2002 she helped launch the now-defunct political organisation, the United People’s Party.

However, Haughton-Cardenas found herself on the wrong side of the law after being accused of misappropriating funds from one of her clients in 2009. That same year the General Legal Council, acting upon a recommendation by its disciplinary committee, struck her from the roll of attorneys allowed to do legal work in Jamaica.

When her case came before the Corporate Area Court in December 2009, her attorney, Terrence Ballentine, told Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey that his client was sick and the warrant was stayed. But when Haughton-Cardenas did not show for a mention date in another matter in St Thomas two months later, a warrant was issued for her arrest. The stay on the first warrant was also lifted.

The disgraced lawyer fled the country and stayed away even during her father’s funeral in June 2012.

It is still unclear what caused her death on April 28. She was 67.

-Ingrid Henry