Joanna Leigh Boston Marathon: Woman Pleads Not Guilty To Fraud Charges, Claims She Was Injured In Bombing
Joanna Leigh claims she was at the Boston Marathon back in April, 2013, and says that she was injured in the blasts that took three lives and injured hundreds of others. According to CBS Local Boston, Leigh has collected money from the One Fund, and other funding sources, but prosecutors say that she was never actually injured at the marathon on that fateful day. However, Leigh received thousands of dollars by claiming to be a victim. She pleaded “not guilty” to charges in court today.
“@BostonGlobe: Joanna Leigh indicted on charges of cheating One Fund Boston out of $40,000 http://t.co/gKXFNk9M1r pic.twitter.com/KYuWaeamq9”
— veronicanyce (@VeronicaNyce) March 27, 2015
“Leigh was arraigned Monday on charges of larceny and making a false claim to a government agency. She was released without bail and ordered to surrender her passport and not travel outside New England or New York. Her attorney said she’s ‘a very fragile person.'”
Joanna Leigh, 41, has received Boston Marathon victim money totaling about $40,000. She received about $8,000 from Boston’s One Fund, which was set up by former Boston mayor Thomas Menino and former governor Deval Patrick. Court documents indicate that Leigh tried to get millions from the Boston Marathon fund, but “refused” to show proof of her injuries. According to the International Business Times, Leigh also started a GoFundMe page for herself, where she collected about $9,000 in donations.
To this day, she has not produced any medical records that would prove that she was injured in the bombings.
According to NewsOXY, Leigh claims that she suffered a “traumatic brain injury” at the 2013 Boston Marathon. Surveillance footage obtained by investigators proves that Leigh was indeed at the marathon, but that she was not injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line.
Those who know Leigh say that it would be completely unlike her to do something like this. If this is to be believed, Ms. Leigh certainly played the part in court today, wearing all black, and crying as she clutched her mother.
Joanna Leigh is not the first person accused of scamming Boston Marathon funding money. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a woman named Audrea Gause, 26, was accused of taking nearly $500,000 of victim money after allegedly “falsifying documents” that claimed that she was injured in the bombings. The New Yorker was sentenced to three years behind bars, according to Mail Online.
It is unknown what type of punishment Leigh faces in her case, but it is presumed that a guilty verdict would send her to jail.
[Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images]
