Woman Fined Only $100 Dollars For Faking Cancer To Raise Money For Herself
As a person that came close to losing his life to cancer I take great exception to those faking the disease to raise money. I'm even more offended Martha Ann Nicholas will be fined only $100 for faking hers.
I'm alive and well. I'm not complaining. But the financial hit I took during cancer I have yet to recover. During my ordeal I was able to make it through thanks to the generosity of my family and friends. I never once considered publicizing my predicament to raise money for treatment. For me it was an intensely private matter, inasmuch as anything is private when you're in the media.
It is a beautiful thing when a community responds to the plaintive plea of a cancer stricken patient seeking the funds they need to stay alive and beat the disease. And it's an abomination when a person takes advantage of a community's charity. Martha Ann Nicholas doesn't agree. Apparently she thought it was perfectly fine to fake cancer in an effort to solicit donations from strangers.
Nicholas of Mechanicsville, Virgina has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of obtaining money by false pretenses. Nicholas also was given a suspended sentence of a year in jail on each charge and ordered by Fredericksburg General District Judge John R. Stevens not to take part in any charitable causes.
Stevens accepted the plea recommended by prosecutors.
Defense attorney Sam Simpson had said earlier Nicholas had paid restitution of $1,700, the amount she collected. She had claimed at rallies she was a cancer victim.
Her defense claimed she is suffering from a psychosomatic condition that led her believe she had a cancer-like illness. In other words she imagined so powerfully she was sick she shouldn't be held accountable for her actions.
Rubbish.
Much like identity thieves and those stealing valor, individuals that fake cancer to raise money should be punished much more harshly.
Hey Martha, you want any of my cancer? There might be some left. I won't know for sure for three more years. I got handed a sentence worse than yours. It cost a ton more than $100 bucks. And it didn't get suspended.
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