Angie Gomez: Texas Prom Queen Arrested For Faking Cancer To Collect $17,000 In Charity Donations
Angie Gomez, a 19-year-old Texas prom queen, was arrested Friday in Horizon City after being accused of faking cancer in order to collect over $17,000 in charitable donations.
According to ABC News affiliate KVIA, Gomez began a fake charity entitled Achieve the Dream Foundation, falsely claiming to be suffering from leukemia. After telling classmates in January 2011 that she was diagnosed with leukemia and had six months left to live, Gomez raised over $17,000 in donations for her charity by selling novelties.
The doctors are telling me to prepare myself and to start planning for what's about to come, Gomez told the El Paso Times in March 2011. They think the worst is coming, when you start to feel sick and you can't move. I think they're all crazy.
In addition, a special prom was set up for her with all expenses paid for by another high school when she allegedly missed her prom due to illness stemming from the leukemia.
However, after an investigation, police found out that Gomez was not only not ill, but had never been treated for cancer, as she didn't even have it.
We haven't found that at any point in her life that she did have it, Detective Liliana Medina, of the Horizon City police, told ABC.
Medina said that at one point, her mother was oblivious of the fundraiser.
At one point the mom became aware this was going on, Medina said. She tried to talk to her and told her to tell the truth.
Gomez faces a felony charge for the fake charity and is being held on a $5,000 bail, charged with theft by deception.
Her attorney, Sheldon Myers, said Gomez had good intentions and suffered from health issues growing up.
She has a real soft spot for people that suffer from those types of diseases, and that's why she was trying to get money for them, Myers said.
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