Arizona woman who faked cancer to get abortion on trial again, charged with scamming veterans charities
An Arizona woman previously convicted of forging medical documents to receive a taxpayer-funded abortion now is on trial on charges that she scammed veterans charities out of thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements Wednesday before Judge Pamela Gates and a Maricopa County Superior Court jury.
Chalice Zeitner, 30, was indicted Aug. 17, 2015, on eight felony charges related to fraud and identity theft after allegedly scamming veterans charities out of thousands of dollars. Zeitner was not present before the jury; the judge had agreed to her request that she watch the proceedings from a room at the back of the court.
Zeitner had "profited from non-profits," Maura Quigley of the Arizona Attorney General's Office told the jury.
During a 2010 investigation, authorities discovered Zeitner worked with Veterans Hope charities and Armed Forces Racing, two organizations closely tied to each other, according to Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office. Quigley described how Zeitner forged relationships using a number of falsehoods, such as having served in the Marine Corps, being a race-car driver and being a lawyer with a successful law firm in South Africa.
In 2012, Zeitner fraudulently obtained the personal information of the Veterans Hope founder and used his family's personal information — Social Security numbers, names and dates of birth — to open a credit-card account under their names without consent, according to Quigley. Money was then deposited into Zeitner's boyfriend's account without his knowledge, Quigley said. Charges on the card that totaled about $25,000 were not paid off, according to the Attorney General's Office.
More than $65K donated to WWII-veteran scam victim
It was also alleged that Zeitner contacted the Veteran Tickets Foundation to say that it was to be a preferred sponsorship organization for a veterans fundraising gala she was planning in Washington, D.C., according to the Attorney General's Office. Veterans Ticket Foundation agreed to sponsor a placeholder on a race car that was to be debuted at the gala. The placeholder sponsorship cost $10,000. Zeitner provided wire instructions to the Veteran Tickets Foundation for transfer of the funds to a personal account. The Veteran Tickets Foundation also purchased several thousand dollars worth of tickets to the gala through Zeitner’s personal PayPal account.
None of the funds was returned to the foundation and the gala was not held.
"You will see, you will learn, that the defendant made it seem like this would be the event of all things," Quigley said about the gala.
Both the defense and the prosecution told jurors that the case would revolve around the Veteran Tickets Foundation and the gala.
"You're going to need to consider all the charges," defense attorney Richard Jones told jurors. There was a plan for a gala, but the gala did not happen. Although Zeitner was heavily involved in the coordination of the gala, Jones explained that it was up to the jury to determine how guilty she was in relation to the charges against her.
In that case, Zeitner's attorney Adam Schwartz told the jury that his client actually had believed she had cancer. Prosecutors said the same obstetrician who performed the 2010 abortion delivered a baby for Zeitner and failed to find signs of her claimed cancer or claimed treatments for the cancer.