Highland woman who defrauded nonprofits and individuals sentenced in federal court
A Highland woman who defrauded nonprofit organizations and individuals by claiming to have breast cancer and other illnesses to get money, donated items and benefits was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Staci Yandle went beyond the eight months recommended by Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Weissler and defense attorney David Brengle as part of a plea agreement. Sarah Delashmit, 36, had pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud in October.
Yandle handed down the sentence at a video-conferenced hearing of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. She considered not only what Delashmit was accused of doing in federal charges, but also her background, as described in an investigative report, victim statements and state orders suspending her nursing licenses.
“Miss Delashmit deceived and manipulated individuals and families facing terminal illness and debilitating disorders and nonprofit organizations and volunteers who serve those individuals,” Yandle said.
“She preyed on these communities by fraudulently posing as someone with muscular dystrophy or a mother who was diagnosed with Stage 4 terminal breast cancer.
“She exploited people’s trust, their kindness, their sympathy and their generosity for her own benefit. She accepted donations and allowed volunteers to care for her when she did not need or deserve that care. She took resources from those who did.”
Humiliating media coverage
Brengle had argued that Delashmit already had suffered humiliation as a result of extensive media coverage and YouTube videos publicizing her case and that her compliance with court orders since her March indictment showed that she’s capable of refraining from fraudulent activity and rehabilitating herself.
Yandle seemed to reject that logic.
“Whenever (Delashmit) was exposed, she simply moved on to her next deceptive scheme,” the judge said. “... She has no prior criminal history to speak of, but her fraudulent conduct is extensive, and it goes back many years, at least back to 2005.”
Yandle did grant Brengle’s request to ask the Federal Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate Delashmit at the Federal Correctional Institution in Greenville, if possible, so that her family could visit her.
Delashmit will be required to pay $7,629 in restitution, $1,250 in fines and $500 in special assessments under the sentence. She also must forfeit items she acquired from the nonprofit organizations, including two bicycles and cycling gear.
Delashmit will serve three years of probation after her imprisonment. She was released after Tuesday’s hearing with orders to self-surrender on notification by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. That’s expected to happen in four to six weeks.
Yandle didn’t order Delashmit to serve the typical 120 hours of community service after her release.
“Until such time as Miss Delashmit has been successfully reintegrated into the community and been evaluated and received appropriate mental-health and psychological treatment, I would not be comfortable with exposing any organizations to her,” the judge said.
Emotional victim testimony
The sentencing followed dramatic and emotional testimony from two of Delashmit’s victims, Bethany Turner and Liz Hickox, who fought back tears as they described how they and others were damaged by her deceitful actions.
Turner was a “caregiver” to Delashmit in 2015 at Camp Summit, a Texas camp for people with disabilities, where Delashmit pretended to be debilitated by muscular dystrophy, according to the federal charges.
At the hearing, Turner described how she bathed, dressed and fed Delashmit, brushed her teeth, took care of her feminine-hygiene needs, helped her to use the bathroom, pushed her around in a wheelchair and took extraordinary steps to enable her to go horseback-riding and zip-lining and participate in other outdoor activities.
“I feel like a sacred place has been violated,” Turner said. “The one place that people in this community can go and feel whole has been ripped apart. (There are) people like me, because of Sarah, who now don’t trust people.”
Turner also read a statement from Erin Johnson, a 38-year-old California woman who has muscular dystrophy. Johnson maintained an 11-year friendship with Delashmit based on lies about a fake family, life and shared disability.
Hickox and her husband, Brian, who live in Rhode Island, developed a friendship with Delashmit in 2018. She visited them three times at their Florida vacation home after meeting them at a benefit bike ride in New York and falsely telling them she had Stage 4 breast cancer, a husband, a baby daughter and a job as a flight attendant.
The couple learned the truth about Delashmit in March of 2019, after an over-the-top phone charade in which she pretended to be shot at the Highland Walmart by a woman obsessed with her fictitious husband.
At the hearing, Liz Hickox told the judge that Delashmit’s betrayal had caused her to lose confidence in herself and trust in others and prompted her to stop volunteering for charitable causes.
“Just because these experiences don’t involve the exchange of a dollar doesn’t mean they don’t have value,” she said. “They have very real value and immeasurable pain and lifelong suffering of the people that you hurt.”
Delashmit apologizes
Delashmit also read a short statement during the court hearing on Tuesday. She apologized for hurting her victims and breaking their trust.
“I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it right,” she said. “I received a nursing degree because of my love of helping people. In the future, I would love to be able to return to the medical field and try to rebuild what was once lost.
“I have a lot to offer society, and I want to be able to pursue my passion for helping people in a positive way.”
Delashmit pleaded guilty on Oct. 13 to five felonies related to three scams that involved faking breast cancer and genetic disorders to get money, donated items and benefits from two nonprofit organizations and making false statements to a credit-card company and internet retailer to obtain a $4,500 triathlon bike.
The two nonprofit organizations, which will receive restitution payments, are Camp Summit and the New York-based Young Survival Coalition, which helps young people diagnosed with breast cancer.
Turner, the Hickoxes and other victims helped inform an FBI investigation that led to Delashmit’s indictment. She was indicted March 3, 2020, on eight federal charges, including four counts of wire fraud, one of mail fraud and three of aggravated identity theft.
Delashmit pleaded not guilty at her June 22 arraignment, then guilty to the five counts of fraud at a change of plea hearing on Oct. 13. Prosecutors agreed to drop the three counts of aggravated identify theft as part of the plea agreement.
Beyond Delashmit’s actions involving Camp Summit and the Young Survival Coalition, she admitted to using someone else’s credit card without permission to buy a $4,500 triathlon bike on eBay and keeping it after the charge was removed.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
