Beauty queen charged in fake cancer scheme

A Pennsylvania beauty queen who police say concocted a get-rich scheme by faking cancer is facing criminal charges and the ire of a beauty pageant that wants its crown back.

Brandi Weaver-Gates, 23, Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International 2015, was charged with one count each of theft by deception and receiving stolen property. State Police Trooper Thomas Stock told USA TODAY that more charges are expected as victims — anyone who bought tickets to fundraisers or threw money into buckets at local gas stations — are interviewed.

Weaver-Gates claimed to have chronic lymphocytic leukemia since March 2013.

"There are many people out there that have family, friends and neighbors that are affected by some form of cancer," Stock said. "And unfortunately you have some people out there that take advantage of that."

One recent fundraiser, Bingo for Brandi, raised $14,000, police said. The fundraising website claimed Weaver-Gates "will be going through her third round of chemo treatments ... Her last two rounds of treatments Brandi has been driving to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. This fundraiser will help Brandi pay for her medical bills and travels for treatment."

Police were tipped to the alleged scam in an anonymous letter from someone who suggested her stories didn't add up. Stock said the investigation uncovered a scheme so elaborate that Weaver-Gates would shave her head. Family members would sit in hospital waiting rooms for hours while Weaver-Gates pretended to have cancer treatments. But when police called her on it, she couldn't name her physicians, and hospitals where she claimed to have been treated had no record of her, Stock said.

She was jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail.

"I don't think she wants to come out," Stock said. "People here are up in arms. There could be problems when she is freed."

Weaver-Gates faces up to seven years in prison on each count. But separate counts could be filed for each person who was cheated. And Stock says there apparently are plenty of them.

"The messages are non-stop," he said.

None of this sits well with Butler's Beauties, sponsors of the Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International pageant. The group said Weaver-Gates convinced them she was ill and that they "stood by her as she struggled with being a beauty queen and a cancer patient."

The pageant expressed sympathy for those affected by cancer and to anyone who she cheated.

"Effective immediately, Ms. Weaver-Gates is no longer a representative of the Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International organization and will be required to return her crown and sash upon her release," the group said.

After a preliminary hearing, Weaver-Gates is expected back in court on Dec. 30, the Associated Press reports.