Credit: BILL McKELWAY
Two 12-month jail terms for Martha Ann Nicholas were suspended.
A Mechanicsville woman accused of faking cancer to raise money pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges of obtaining money by false pretenses and was fined a total of $100.
Martha Ann Nicholas was also ordered by Fredericksburg General District Judge John R. Stevens not to take part in any charitable causes and placed on five years of probation. A sentence of 12 months in jail on each charge was suspended.
Stevens accepted the plea nearly immediately and heard no evidence in the case after agreeing to the prosecution's recommendation. Stevens heard the case after Judge Robert D. Laney said he would not accept the plea agreement.
Earlier, defense attorney Sam Simpson had said that Nicholas, who had claimed at rallies that she was a cancer victim, has made restitution of $1,700, the total she had collected for herself.
Simpson also said that Nicholas had been suffering from a psychosomatic condition that led her to believe she had a cancer-like?illness, and that her soliciting donations was from a belief that she had cancer.
Her family expressed relief that she is not going to jail, and that she is receiving counseling and treatment.
(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
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