Two admit to violating probation in Hancock cancer scam case
Two people convicted of scamming a Hancock couple out of more than $80,000 admitted Monday to violating their probation after not paying restitution.
During court hearings Monday, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Dana Moylan Wright ordered that Lee Anne McCauley and her former boyfriend, Brian Keith King Jr., remain on probation. But the judge stressed that McCauley, 29, and King, 36, still owe the victims more than $79,000.
McCauley, who was convicted a decade ago of credit-card theft involving the same victims, was released from prison last year. Her probation started after she was sentenced in this case.
"I'm going to assume (the victims) don't want you incarcerated," Wright told McCauley, so that McCauley can pay restitution.
King has been on probation after having an eight-year sentence suspended in this case.
"Some effort (to pay back the victims) will go a long way to convincing me you need to stay out of prison," Wright told King. If he was not paying, she said, it made "no difference to the victims" whether he was in prison or not.
McCauley and King were charged in February 2016 with scamming more than $82,000 from the couple by pretending McCauley needed cash for cancer treatments across the nation, according to court documents and police.
According to the application for statement of charges, the victims' bank contacted a Washington County Adult Protective Services investigator in August 2015. The investigator, in turn, contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The documents said one victim came to the bank in July 2015 asking for a $15,000 cash advance on her and her husband's home-equity account. The woman said she was helping her "adoptive granddaughter" with cancer treatments.
McCauley told the woman that she registered under a false name at the cancer facility because she could not pay for treatments.
The bank advised the woman, who was in her 70s, that the situation "sounded like a scam." The investigator reminded the couple that they had been the victims when McCauley was convicted of credit-card theft in 2008.
Despite the warnings, the couple continued giving King money after McCauley would call detailing an increasing number of afflictions, according to the court documents.
She told the couple her medical treatments and conditions included a bone-marrow transplant, lumpectomies, mastectomies, chemotherapy, radiation poisoning, hip replacement, a double lung transplant, brain tumors, a paralyzing stroke treatment for a MRSA infection and foot surgery.
McCauley told the victims she was treated at facilities in Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, West Virginia, Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Maryland.
In January 2016, the victim told authorities McCauley contacted her saying she needed a colon operation in Baltimore. After confirming that McCauley was not a patient at the hospital, the woman wanted to press charges.
From July 2015 to January 2016, McCauley and King received $82,420.16 from the couple, according to the sheriff's office.
In June 2016, McCauley pleaded guilty to obtaining the property of a vulnerable adult between $10,000 and $100,000. Wright sentenced her to 10 years in prison, with five suspended.
McCauley, whose address on the court documents is listed as the Washington County Detention Center, was released from prison last year, but failed to report to probation or pay any restitution, according to the probation department's testimony Monday. A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she has been behind bars since April.
On Monday, Deputy District Public Defender Eric A. Reed said McCauley was "quasi-homeless" for part of that time, but she now has plans for housing.
Wright ordered McCauley to serve 4 1/2 years on probation, with the condition that she make progress on restitution.
King, of Bunker Hill, W.Va., pleaded guilty in June 2016 to conspiracy to obtain the property of a vulnerable adult of $10,000 to $100,000. Between then and December 2016, he paid $2,400 in restitution.
At a December 2016 hearing, Wright warned King to keep making restitution payments during his five-year probation period or face the possibility of going to prison. He was sentenced to eight years, all suspended.
Since then, however, he has not kept up the payments, according to violation of probation documents. He also was charged in Berkeley County, W.Va., in late 2016 with driving with a suspended license and possession of heroin and cocaine, according to the court documents.
Wright ordered King to be released on his own recognizance pending sentencing on Dec. 10.
"You need to make some effort" to pay restitution, Wright said. "You can either go home for Christmas, or not."
