Jessica Vega Admits Faking Cancer To Pay For Wedding And Honeymoon

Jessica Vega admitted to faking cancer to get money from donors to pay for her wedding and honeymoon.

GOSHEN, N.Y. — A New York woman admitted Wednesday that she faked cancer to con donors out of money and services for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon.

Jessica Vega, 25, isn't likely to do any time in state prison, court officials said, but she will have to repay $13,368 to her victims and remain in jail until her sentencing on May 15.

She pleaded guilty in Orange County Court to scheming to defraud and possession of a forged instrument charges.

In 2010, Vega spread the word in her Hudson Valley community that she was dying of leukemia and wanted a "dream wedding" to Michael O'Connell, the father of her infant daughter, in the few months she had left.

Donors stepped up with rings, an embroidered wedding dress and a time-share in Aruba for the honeymoon. Other contributions included food, wine and hairdressing.

Vega was living in Montgomery, a town 60 miles north of New York City, when she launched the scam, which picked up steam when her story was featured in a local newspaper, the Times Herald-Record of Middletown.

But after their May 2010 wedding, O'Connell came to the newspaper with questions about her story and the couple divorced.

The forged instrument charge involved a bogus doctor's letter that Vega gave the newspaper to bolster her story.

She was arrested April 3 in Virginia, where she was again living with O'Connell and their second child.

Vega is expected to be sentenced to time already served in jail as long as she pays the restitution.

"We're going to make that somehow," said Vega's lawyer, Jeremiah Flaherty, adding that O'Connell will help pay back the victims.

"While he blew the whistle on her, at the same time this is the mother of his two children," Flaherty said.

He said Vega is sorry for what happened and hopes the people who showed her kindness aren't disillusioned or less likely to help others in the future.

"She got caught up in something and it just got out of hand," Flaherty said.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office prosecuted the case, said the plea means Vega "will be held accountable for fleecing the public through lies and deception."

"By pretending to have a terminal illness, Vega inexcusably took advantage of the community's hearts and minds," he said.

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Comments

[1 Voice of Reason]

10:03 AM on 04/26/2012

This has been done before. The other women worked for a police department, and many police officers gave her donations for surgery. Then it was later discovered that she was a fraud. Shame on them.

[jsabua]

07:51 AM on 04/26/2012

I'm sorry but she should of used that money on a makeover... I'm sure the man she is to marry is just as breathtaking.

[Mailman]

07:35 AM on 04/26/2012

What's going to happen if you really get cancer? Who's going to believe you until you die.

[CarrieBurch1]

11:13 AM on 04/26/2012

Your obviously a conservative, who makes unintelligent and inaccurate generalizations just so you can run your mouth.

[CarrieBurch1]

11:20 AM on 04/26/2012

You're*

[randallavery]

12:29 PM on 04/26/2012

Well I must say Carrie there is no way thats possible when it comes to me or my party, because the descriptions you had given "unintelligent and inaccurate generalizations" have ALWAYS been associated with democrats, even liberals have a better reputation of doing something, but democrats do nothing. I'm sorry your a democrat, as I used to be as well, but then I started seeing what they stood for and it was always self endugent and never for the good of the country. If I wanted to be President, I would become a democrat, because I know that the majority of dem's are very dumb and they believe whatever is told to them, so I'd lie and tell them what they wanted to hear, even thought I knew everything I said was inaccurate, but in generalizations this is a fact with Dem's. They don't read, they are typically not educated, they want what others have but don't want to work for it. You most definately should change parties, because they are truly an embarrassment to humanity.

[webrat]

06:53 AM on 04/26/2012

Damn what i wouldnt give to get that little bi*ch alone with a rubber hose for about 10 - 20 mins.

[maxout22]

04:32 AM on 04/26/2012

This relationship has stage 4 written all over it.

[sadwitness]

04:09 AM on 04/26/2012

what a train wreck of a human being

[Mark Helfgott]

12:56 AM on 04/26/2012

I faked having a cold to get a tissue. I just like tissues.

[Charles Malone]

12:10 AM on 04/26/2012

she is no good and that all i can say about her.

[sadwitness]

04:07 AM on 04/26/2012

true words

[Brain Pillsner]

12:03 AM on 04/26/2012

dcasc

[Dean M Miller]

11:48 PM on 04/25/2012

"She got caught up in something and it just got out of hand"

no she didnt. she planned to lie people and scam them out of money, and thats what she did.

[Davenport Dave]

10:54 PM on 04/25/2012

Thanks be to jeebus she didn't have an abortion.

[sageadvice731]

09:40 PM on 04/25/2012

I don't see what the problem is. Cancer is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Researchers, charities and the medical community are getting rich off the scam called cancer.

[Pat Cranford]

10:10 PM on 04/25/2012

This scam called cancer??? I truly hope you are never a victim of the scam called cancer!! My son happens to be fighter of this terrible disease called cancer and we have literally had to beg strangers on facebook for each and every penny to pay for the treatments to just keep him alive and then you come on here and call cancer a scam??? there are bad people out there that think that every things is theirs to get rich off of , even the suffering and death of others and this woman should be totally ashamed of herself and have to work and earn every single penny that she stole from the concerned neighborhood around her. Shame on you you selfish woman!!!

[sageadvice731]

10:26 PM on 04/25/2012

My mom died of cancer aka vitamin b17 deficiency. You don't think researches and so called charities are getting rich off this? Why would they actually want a cure? They would be putting themselves out of business. There are cures for cancer, they just can't patent them and they're dirt cheap. If you can't afford cancer treatment, you need medicaid or apricot seeds.

[Dean M Miller]

11:49 PM on 04/25/2012

yeah i dont believe that they would give us a cure either, instead they milk people dry for everything theyve got, all for procedures that usually end up failing in the end.

cancer is real, but it the US, its a business

[sageadvice731]

12:10 AM on 04/26/2012

It's sad that Americans are the "laboratory rats" in all this mess. Even the American Cancer Society tells you what they are all about in their name. They aren't the anti-cancer society.

[jgfsmf]

04:27 PM on 04/25/2012

The husband divorced her but when she was arrested they were living together again. Dude get a clue. If she can lie about something like this, she' s going to lie about everything.

[metalsmithgirl71]

05:05 PM on 04/25/2012

i worry about her child. maybe that's why he had moved back in...

[jgfsmf]

05:25 PM on 04/25/2012

Dammit, I didn't think of that. Hopefully after this he gets full custody???