Woman Who Faked Having Cancer For Cash May Be At It Again
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A woman cheated hundreds of people out of thousands of dollars by pretending she had cancer and may have recently been doing it again.
Ann Crall was arrested and is in custody after failing to appear in court on theft charges in Arapahoe County.
Three years ago Crall pleaded guilty to cheating some 230 victims out of more than $58,000. She was the wife of a Lakewood policeman and fellow officers and others donated cash and put on benefits to help her.
Now the Jefferson County District Attorney and Probation Department are trying to find out what Crall has been up to.
"Ms. Crall committed what I view as an egregious offense when she defrauded co-workers and law enforcement officials under the guise she was in fact suffering from cancer," said Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Weir.
Investigators want to determine if messages on Twitter from a woman claiming to have been at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center were her.
One reads "when the day starts by having to pull over to the side of the highway and throw up ... you've gotta know you'll be doing battle all day."
Lakewood Police Chief Kevin Paletta told CBS4 after Crall's initial arrest that the Lakewood police family "felt hurt, betrayed, and angry, we wanted some consequences for her action."
She faced more than a dozen years in prison but got 90 days and 10 years of intense probation. Since then she pleaded guilty to drug charges in Douglas County, is charged with theft and check fraud in Arapahoe County and now Jefferson County has revoked her probation.
"It would be the position of my office Ms. Crall has earned her way into the department of corrections and that's where she deserved to be," said Weir.
One of the reasons Crall was given a light jail sentence was so she could work to pay back the victims the $58,000 she owed. She has only paid back a few hundred dollars.