Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 'FOOTBALL-SIZED TUMOR' Scammer Won't Face Jail Time

Episode Date: November 11, 2023

Madison Russo told the world she was battling pancreatic cancer and had a tumor “the size of a football." It was all a lie. After Russo bilked donors out of more than $37,000 through her posts on social media, some eagle-eyed medical professionals began questioning her diagnosis. The anonymous witnesses noticed inaccuracies in the photos she posted of herself and contacted authorities. Russo is arrested and charged with first-degree theft. Now, under a plea deal, Russo gets a suspended sentence and stays out of jail  Joining Nancy Grace today: Kirby Clements- Attorney at Law, Author: "How to Keep Your A$$ Out of Jail;" Instagram: @kirbyclementsjr, Twitter: @kirbyesq  Dr. Shari Schwartz- Forensic Psychologist (Specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy); Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;" Twitter: @TrialDoc   Greg Smith- Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office (Kansas), Executive Director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation Stefani Condon-Oldreive - Founder and Director of Craig’s Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society; Craig was her father, who passed away shortly after his diagnosis 16 years ago.   https://twitter.com/CraigsCauseCan https://www.instagram.com/craigscausecan/ https://www.facebook.com/CraigsCauseCan/ Dr. Tim Gallagher- Medical Examiner, State of Florida; Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine; Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference   Kayla Brantley- Reporter, DailyMail.com; Twitter: @_KaylaBrantley, Instagram: @KaylaBrantley  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I cannot believe it. A total faker, a scammer, a charlatan who fakes a cancer battle and documents it on TikTok and then pockets tens of thousands of dollars from GoFundMe donation actually cries in front of the judge and escapes jail. The judge actually believes her BS. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here on Crime Stories and Sirius XM 111. This TikToker, Madison Russo of Bittendorf, Iowa, scams 40 grand, nearly $40,000. And she gets sympathy of millions of followers after lying about a, quote, football-sized tumor. You heard me. A football-sized tumor wrapped around her spine.

When the judge hears her story and watches her start crying, the judge hands down a suspended sentence. Yes, she's walking free. Madison Russo, who fakes leukemia and pancreatic cancer on TikTok, GoFundMe, Facebook, LinkedIn, actually walked free. I can't believe it. Now, I just had a very dear and close friend, Natalie,

who went to high school with me back in Macon, Georgia, pass away leaving behind a son without a mother after a long and valiant fight with cancer. She suffered so much, and her family suffered so much, and her sister Amy did so much to take care of her. But Natalie passed away. She slipped away from us. And now I got to look at this woman, Madison Russo, who fakes leukemia and pancreatic cancer online to scam people. Over 400 people sent her donations as part of a 10-year suspended sentence.

She was ordered to pay back the nearly $40,000. And if she stays out of trouble for three years of straight probation, she'll stay free forever. I mean, her big fat scam unravels when medical professionals spot problems in her story. How did the whole thing start? Take a listen to our cut one. I want people to live. I want to live. You know, I want I want baby big cheer. That's Maddie Russo, a 19 year old college student speaking about suffering from cancer. They found a mass on my pancreas and I had stage two pancreatic cancer at just 19 years old. She documented her

treatment in a series of heartbreaking social media posts. Before I even started chemo, I harvested my eggs with the OBGYN and basically it's just to, you're kind of like freezing your eggs. You're hearing this young girl Madison Marie Russo speaking to our friends at Inside Edition with me an all-star panel but first I want to go to a special guest joining us is Stephanie Condon-Aldreve founder and director of Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society and you can find that at craigscause.ca. Stephanie, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me, Nancy. Stephanie, to so many people, the two words pancreatic cancer is a death sentence. Now, I'm just a JD, not an MD. But from what I understand, the pancreas doesn't feel like other organs may feel

when your heart is in trouble. You feel it. I've seen my father in pain with a heart attack with other organs. You feel it. But a lay person's understanding of this, your pancreas doesn't feel the way other organs do. So it's only when cancer of the pancreas metastasizes or goes to other organs that you finally feel it. Is that right? Yeah, absolutely. It's often been referred to as a hidden organ. And, you know, it's hard for any general practitioner or a specialist to feel a pancreas. And quite often when the symptoms first present to patients,

either there's a misdiagnosis. For instance, my father, they thought he had hepatitis because he was presenting as jaundice and he had an upset stomach. And so he went through several misdiagnoses before actually being diagnosed. So often the pancreas symptoms will present as other illnesses before it starts to advance. So well over 50% of the patients, you know, have a prognosis of three to four months after a diagnosis, if it has metastasized. And then, you know, you certainly feel back pain and, like I said, you'll notice jaundice, white stool, dark urine, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, you might experience new onset diabetes. So, there's a lot of different symptoms that can present with pancreatic cancer, but they're often misdiagnosed in the earlier, shall we say, stages when they first present until the patient knows for sure there's something

serious wrong. I'm really sorry about your dad. Thanks. Guys, you're hearing the voice of Stephanie Condon-Oldreave, the founder and director of Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society. And it's especially rare in a young girl just 19 years old. Now, that wasn't her only ailment to top it all off. Take a listen to Hour Cut 30. This is Maddie on TikTok. My name is Maddie Russo, and this is my story. So, when my older brother, Tyler, turned 18 years old, he was diagnosed with

type 1 diabetes, which is a chronic autoimmune disease where the pancreas no longer produces insulin on its own. With this being said, I was also tested to see if I would develop type 1 diabetes and see if I was positive for any of the antibodies. So when the test came back, I ended up being positive for all five other five antibodies. And in February of 2020, I was also diagnosed with type 1 at 17 years old. And it's because of the diabetes tests that she discovers the pancreatic cancer. Take a listen to her one more time. Fast forward to February of 2022. I had yearly lab work done just with my primary care provider as a standard checkup. And aside from starting to feel just a little bit off, my lab work came back

and my white blood cell counts were not in normal range. So further testing was then done. And on February 10th of 2022, quite possibly the worst day of my life occurred. I got the call from my oncologist and they found a mass on my pancreas and I had stage 2 pancreatic cancer at just 19 years old. She describes her fear as a young girl with pancreatic cancer in our cut 32. Scared is an understatement. I was terrified and I definitely still am. But I'm really glad I went to my yearly health check because it would have been so easy to just skip it and say I'm fine. So please take my experience and get regular lab work done because the sooner you catch anything

that is wrong, the better chance of outcome and survival you would have. And it really could save your life like it did mine. So after finding out, I started treatment right away consisting of oral chemo and radiation. So far, I have included eight rounds of chemo and over 50 rounds of radiation. You know, Stephanie Condon-Oldreave, joining us from Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society. I'm sure you've talked to so many survivors and people that are battling pancreatic cancer. And, you know, that moment when you realize

that you could be facing death is something that no one ever forgets. I remember when I had a shotgun pulled on me when I was a prosecutor and I was knocking on a door to deliver a subpoena. I remember when I learned I had a melanoma, a very aggressive cancer on my leg. That was many years ago. It's been treated. That moment when you find out that something could threaten you and your family forever stephanie i know you've heard that a hundred times from people you work with yeah absolutely it's you know um it's a it's a devastating diagnosis it's a scary diagnosis and quite often for the majority of patients, they really don't have time to digest everything they're being told before they find themselves

either going in for what's called the Whipple procedure, which is a life-altering surgery. They call it the atomic bomb of surgeries. Or they're facing a terminal diagnosis. So not only are they faced with a cancer diagnosis, they're faced with a cancer diagnosis that has really scary statistics with it. And quite often, you know, we've talked about it almost, or not almost, it being having a PTSD effect on many of our patients and caregivers. Because it's just a moment in time that they know their life is going to change drastically. We're talking about a young girl, a teen girl, Maddie Russo, who discovers that she has pancreatic cancer. Take a listen to Dave Mack at Crime Online.

Madison Russo was sitting in an accounting class at St. Ambrose University when she received bad news from an oncologist. The 19-year-old has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, leukemia, and has a football-sized tumor on her spine. Russo has an 11% survival rate for five years. After undergoing 15 rounds of chemotherapy and 90 rounds of radiation, she shares her story on TikTok to raise awareness.

This offers Russo comfort and hope, and it's the message that leads to more media coverage for Russo. She does interviews with her local press, which is picked up by larger outlets. This leads to Russo discussing her cancer journey as a guest speaker at St. Ambrose University, where she is a student. Despite her illnesses, Russo continues attending class with a 4.0 GPA and works part-time job at John Deere. In her free time, Russo enjoys playing golf. Not only did she continue her schooling and get a 4.0 GPA, she takes to GoFundMe to spread awareness about pancreatic cancer and to raise money for her treatment.

Take a listen to our friends at Inside Edition. She raised over $37,000 on a GoFundMe page. Louis Frillman was so moved by her plight, he donated $1,000. What struck a chord with you about her story? She was a, you know, a very young person that appeared to be in a serious amount of trouble. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. welcome back to crime stories i'm looking at this woman's bookend photo madison russo an iowa woman who faked cancer and documented her quote battle quote on social media will absolutely not go to jail now one of the things she did is she would post photos of herself with medical equipment claiming she had a football-sized tumor on her spine. She flees hundreds of GoFundMe

donors out of nearly $40,000. And I'm looking at this picture. She has the tube in her nose incorrectly, and someone picked up on that that and the whole thing began to unravel. So what happened? This week is not a chemo week. It's just a radiation week. Authorities allege Russo spent the past year claiming she'd been diagnosed with leukemia, stage two pancreatic cancer and a tumor the size of a football that wrapped around her spine. Posting dozens of photos and videos like this, she's since taken down, now reposted on TikTok by another user. So it's my week off chemo. So I've just been doing radiation. So why did she take down all the information about pancreatic cancer and her battle against one of the deadliest cancers known to man. What? Listen to this. In one interview,

Madison Russo claims doctors told her she had an 11% chance of survival and people, charities, cancer organizations, they all donated to help her fight cancer. The problem is, according to authorities, she doesn't have cancer. She never did. And that's not just a lie. It's a felony. I am too sick from treatment where I can't go anywhere. I can't do anything. This morning, an Iowa TikToker accused of faking a cancer diagnosis. Charged with stealing from people who donated to help her battle a disease authorities say she doesn't have. Investigators say Madison Russo took more than $37,000 from Maddie's fight against pancreatic cancer. A GoFundMe set up on her behalf that's now been taken down.

I'm so mad I could chew a nail in half right now. Kayla Brantley joining me, investigative reporter with DailyMail.com. Kayla, what? This is a crazy story, but unfortunately, not the first time we have seen people deceive the public to get some money and especially use GoFundMe to raise funds for something that isn't even real. And the way that Madison was caught was by her own hand, by posting on TikTok, by posting photos and videos of her medical tubes. And what's so amazing is that it was the public who caught on and said something

doesn't look right there and started commenting and eventually reporting until she was caught. Yes, the tubes were in the wrong position in some of the photos she posted. Joining me, Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner for the entire state of Florida at PathCareMed.com, lecturer at the University of Florida Medical School, host of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference, and treated cancer patients as a surgeon. Dr. Gallagher, thank you so much for being with us. I was thrown over to start with when I heard she had 90 rounds of radiation.

Is that normal? That's absolutely abnormal. You know, radiation, basically what it does to your body is it microwaves the tissue. So it actually burns the tissue. So if she had 90 rounds of radiation, a lot of her tissue would be burnt, the disease tissue, as well as the surrounding live tissue that she still needs. And she would suffer the aftere after effects of burning a lot of her viable tissue, her live tissue as well. So no, she does not look like anybody who has undergone 90 rounds of radiation. And I would really question a department that would schedule somebody for 90

rounds of chemotherapy, I'm sorry, of radiation, typically 10, 12, maybe 15, but nowhere near 90. As a matter of fact, my dear friend is undergoing radiation for breast cancer right now. And it's supposed to be over, you know, once a week for I don't know, maybe 10 weeks or 16 weeks. And when I heard her say she had 90 rounds of radiation, but just as a JD and not being an MD, I wasn't sure that I was right. But I bet you were spinning in your seat, Dr. Gallagher, when you heard that not only has she had 15 rounds of chemo, 90 rounds of radiation, she still was attending class every day, had a 4.0 GPA, a job at John Deere, and enjoyed golf in her free time. You know, when we had these patients come to the hospital, they are jaundiced.

I mean, the whites of their eyes are yellow. I mean, bright yellow, like nuclear yellow. Their teeth sometimes are even yellow. You know, and in a lot of these photographs, her eyes are wide open and they look perfectly white to me. She does not look sick. We had a saying at the hospital, sick people look sick. Well, now, wait a minute. Look, I said I'm not an MD, but listen, I did not bring you on Crime Stories to have you spout out something my grandmother could have told me. Sick people look sick. It sounds simple, but it's true.

I'm just giving you a hard time. You're right. And you know what else, Dr. Gallagher? I know you heard our special guest, Stephanie Condon-Oldreave, talking about how pancreatic cancer patients are often treated for other ailments because they look jaundiced or yellow looking. That's exactly what you're saying. In these photos that you looked at for us, she looks perfectly healthy. Now, how would her eye, what would she have looked like if she had stage two pancreatic cancer? Well, she would be jaundiced, meaning her skin would be yellow and her skin would be so yellow that the the white part of her eyes would also be a very bright vivid vivid yellow you know and I'm looking at these photographs here and they're not people who are jawness they do not have suntan lines because their entire skin is now yellow and

I'm looking at some of the photographs you can see around her clothing she has suntan lines so that's how we in the clinic would determine if somebody was having pancreatic disease or liver disease that was leading to jaundice we would look to see if they had a suntan line we would look in their eyes to see if they were yellow and then we would start the blood test from there. Now why can't you get a suntan lined? Because the yellow pigment that is produced by the disease gets absorbed by the skin evenly throughout the skin so your skin is the exact same color from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes meaning that any whitish area that you would have would also be darkened by the yellow pigment from the disease.

Guys, you've got to hear our cut for this is Reggie Terry, a KWQC6. Listen. This search warrant is revealing some new details about what led to her arrest and what was taken from her apartment. This warrant says medical professionals came forward to report the inaccuracies of Russo's medical equipment placement on her body in the pictures that she shared on social media. The warrant also states the pictures appear that she took them from inside her apartment and not a medical office.

Court documents say those medical professionals who came forward are prepared to testify. Yeah, I'm looking at one photo. Let me go straight out to you. Kayla Brantley, joining me from DailyMail.com. I'm looking at a photo on your article from DailyMail.com, and it shows Madison Marie Russo. She looks like she's got a glamour pic going on. She's beautiful white smile, bright white eyes, healthy tan. Her hair is parted over, like kind of slung over. The only thing that makes you think, well, maybe it's not a glamour shot. You know those shots that you can go to the mall and get and you look very, very glamorous. Well, it's that she has a medical bag and she's got her shirt undone a good bit. Not judging. Don't care. But that reveals all of these tubes taped and it looks like with scotch tape to her chest. She has a tube from the ear to the nose. Now, and she's holding the tube with perfectly manicured hands.

That's in your article, Kayla. And so that's what I keep looking back at. It's the Daily Mail article. Jackie is wildly waving a note to me that Dr. Gallagher says, if you looked at this Daily Mail photo, let's see where you guys got the photo. TikTok. Yep, straight from her own TikTok. Dr. Gallagher, you said something along the lines of, if Jackie is to be believed, that any first-year med student could tell you that placement is wrong. Tell me, Dr. Gallagher,

in depth, what you're talking about. Well, absolutely. If you look at, if you're looking at the same photograph, she's got a tube that's going in her nose to an iv bag and she's got one taped to the front of her chest um the one that's going to her nose the iv bag is actually lower than um the uh tube that goes into her nose so how is that going to be gravity fed you know into her nose um if it's a bag that collects fluid out of her body through her nose, then there's no fluid coming out of that tube going into the bag. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, I can't believe this woman. She claims her, quote, medical journey started all the way back in 2022 in February. She was outed when cops got medical records from centers where she was a patient and exposed.

She had never received any form of cancer treatment. And then cops find out she was, no shame, stealing photos from cancer patient social media accounts in an attempt to make her story more credible. Let that sink in stealing photos from real cancer patients social media so she could use them to document document her so-called cancer journey i want to vomit this woman makes me sick she shared her cancer journey her words not mine in newspapers she gave talks at saint ambrose university where she studied on podcasts and the national pancreatic foundation oh my stars you know at her apartment police found pursuant to search warrant of course a brown paper bag with medical supplies, an IV pole, cotton ball filled pump, boxes of

dressings, wigs, and a prescription for nausea medication that was made out to one of her kinfolks. Now, she took money from 439 generous hearts, including from cancer foundations and school districts. Oh, my stars. You know, this one donor named Louis Frillman, he gave her a $500 donation. He said, quote, my thinking is say a prayer for this young kid. She's going to have a lot of terrible consequences as a result of this. Boy, I bet he was surprised. So what happened?

Okay, Dr. Gallagher, another thing. Jackie's now waving another. What did you just say about the bandage in the port? She wants me to ask you about, in the same picture, a port. It looks as if there is a port in her chest. And what does the bandage have to do with that? What does that reveal to you? Right. So sometimes if people have cancer, they'll have a port, which is a it's a it's a plastic device that goes under the skin that you can stick needles into, which will spare your arms and your and your legs, you know, from getting IVs in it.

So this port is over the, it's almost the central part of her chest, which is where a lot of bones would be. And anybody who would put this port in this place on this somebody so young should have their medical license taken away from them. The lung is over there. You can puncture the lung. You can puncture the heart. You can puncture a lot of the major blood vessels trying to access that port if it was in this location. So there are ports to be put on the chest, but this location is not where you want it. It's too risky. Let me go to Stephanie Condon-Aldree joining us, founder, director of Craig's Cause

Pancreatic Cancer Society, who lived through pancreatic cancer with her father. He was the victim. How? I don't know. Does it make you mad or does it make you sick? What this girl did, stealing people's money, pretending she had pancreatic cancer i guess there's a range of feelings you know you certainly feel sad you know about where you know some people in our society are are headed or what they're doing to very you know the people that donated to her cause donated to her cause because they wanted to help. They wanted to make a difference in her life. They wanted to give her hope. And, you know, so she took advantage of all of those donors, all of those supporters that wanted to make a difference in her life. But she also just

took advantage, you know, she spread incorrect information about pancreatic cancer. And for all those donors, I imagine, you know, they'd be quite jaded and not trust maybe to donate to, you know, an accredited cause or, you know, and to continue to make those differences, you know, and that in turn can impact, you know, many organizations programs because they're dependent on donor trust and donors wanting to make a difference. So I feel sad that, you know, that there's people out there that do that. I feel, you know, disappointed, you know, that there's so many donors that were taken advantage of. You know, you certainly feel angry from a personal perspective, because I know my dad lasted eight weeks with pancreatic cancer. And, you know, you never forget that, you know, so for someone to pretend that they had such a deadly disease, and to take to take those feelings and emulate them in such a false way is really taking

away from somebody else's experiences. Basically making money off other people's misery and heartache with me. Also forensic psychologist, Dr. Sherry Schwartz and special deputy sheriff, Greg Smith. Greg, take a listen to Our Cut 33. You haven't heard it all yet.

Listen to her talking. At my three-month scan, I was informed that the tumor on my pancreas was shrinking and it was responding to treatment. However, it also spread to my blood and is acute lymphoblastic leukemia. There is a mental health crisis in America right now and I want to touch on the impact that cancer and chronic disease patients can go through. When your life changes in an instant and many days are spent vomiting and pain and being restricted with what you can do, your mind also becomes sick. Her mind was sick, all right, because she was ripping off people with a fake pancreatic cancer diagnosis and capitalizing on people that are suffering along with their families watching them with this

disease that moves so swiftly through your body. But that's not all, Greg. Listen to Cut 34. Yeah, I get a lot of questions about my hair. Like, you look so good. Like, how are you keeping your hair? It just comes down to my brand of chemo, which is oral chemo. I am really lucky with that. So thank goodness, fingers crossed. That's something to be so grateful for. That's what I'm saying, Greg. I'm so mad. I want to chew a nail in half. Why does her hair look so great in the Daily Mail picture I'm looking at that they took from TikTok? Because it's healthy. She's healthy. I mean, Greg Smith as special deputy there in Johnson County, and you can find Greg at kelseysarmy.com. You know, sometimes I feel like we've seen it all.

But this little girl right here has shown me I have not seen it all. There's still more ways to irritate and disgust us all. Well, Nancy, this is a classic example of what I would call the oldest profession in the world. And that's the con job. These people that do this have no regard for anybody else's feelings. The important thing here is simply to be able to pull the con off for their own benefit. The only person that matters is them. They're very narcissistic. They're very empathetic in that they can pull emotion from people in order to get whatever

their goal is. But when it comes to caring about other people, there's zero of that. People say, oh, well, you know, that type of crime, it's a victimless crime because nobody's physically hurt. That's a bunch of bull. The mental trauma, the emotional trauma that people go through, particularly those in this case that have had a loved one go through that type of cancer, you know, it's unconscionable what she did. The fact that a judge hands down straight probation just is infuriating. This woman clearly premeditated her whole plot to steal from generous souls trying to help her battle cancer. It was all a scam, a fake. Guys, you've got to hear more of this woman.

I've got so much of this woman talking about her ailment while other people like you heard our friend Stephanie Condon-Oldreef talking about what she went through as her father suffered pancreatic cancer. OK, listen to our cut 28. Here she goes again. The first word that comes to mind is just ugly. You know, it's an ugly disease. It's nasty.

It's very just aggressive and, you know, it wants to just kill everything. But at the same time, I think I would, um, describe it as kind of like, like a, I don't know, like ever changing because it, it changes you as a person. And I guess I'm kind of going into like the spiritual side of it a little bit, but like, yeah, when I can, like, it like it truly changes you like i feel like i'm a whole different person than from when i was you know before february like just my outlook on life and her spiritual side my rear end her spiritual side that's her speaking to uh host on the purple podcast kella brantley joining me from DailyMail.com. I don't even know what to say about this woman.

So somebody noticed she had her tubes and her port in the wrong place. I'm just thinking about all the people across the world that have to have a port where they're jabbed so many times they finally just put in a semi-permanent port so they don't have to have needles stuck in them all the time and here she is with her fake port what is happening with this woman well when officers

went to her house i want to take you through what was seized from her apartment. There was a brown paper bag with medical supplies, an IV pole with a feeding pump that was filled with cotton balls, two boxes of transparent medical dressing, a wig, some cash, and pills for nausea that were actually in her mother's name, not even for her. So she went through all of the efforts to get the supplies that made it look like she had this disease. And not only that, she stole money, but she also stole photos from people who suffered from these cancers and posted them as her own to pass them off. You know, just when I think I've seen it all, Kirby Clements, somebody like this comes along and you and I have seen a lot of bad people in our line of business. That's really kind of all we see are the very worst of society. I've seen killers, rapists, child molesters, you name it, drug lords, you have too.

But I got to tell you, this girl is right up there with the worst of the worst. Basically, taking advantage of cancer victims. Well, you know, now from the defense perspective, I would say... Oh, dear Lord. What? Go ahead. She didn't take me while cancer victims are impacted, I guess, incidentally in this. She didn't actually take money from them. I think she capitalized. And there are some deep issues that she probably has as a defense lawyer. I mean, you're not going to argue that she's not guilty. You just have to go in there and explain why she did what she did and try to help get her

on the right track. I think there's some mental health issues going on there. Maybe she liked the attention, low self-esteem. Who knows? I mean, it's not an excuse to commit a crime, which is why you'd obviously be encouraging her to take a plea. I think I know somebody that's going to disagree with you. And her name is Stephanie Condon-Oldreave. So, Stephanie, what do you have to say to Miss Madison Marie Russo? Oh, I don't know. There's a range of feelings. You know, you certainly feel, you know, as a person that went through a diagnosis with her dad, you certainly feel, you know, angry that she would try to emulate those, you know, symptoms

and pretend to be, you know, sick when she's not. You know, from, you know, I certainly don't have a law degree, but I know from, you know, a charity perspective, we'd certainly want to see individuals like that prosecuted because it does so much damage just to our donor base, you know, and, you know, and anyone that that supported her, you know, would feel a sense of being taken advantage of, especially, you know, when you look at pancreatic cancer, the average age is about 60 years old. And those are a lot of the age groups that are being scammed and targeted. Oh, you're so right. I didn't even think about it in that perspective. Madison Russo scams nearly $40,000. The judge hands down a suspended sentence.

What happened? Over 400 people sent Madison Russo donations. Russo's claims of being ill unraveled when medical professionals caught on to discrepancies in her story, resulting in her arrest. Russo pleaded guilty to first-degree theft charges after she scammed more than $37,000. Russo told a judge that she faked the cancer diagnosis to garner more attention from her family. The 20-year-old apologized as she sobbed in court, saying she knows what she did was wrong and wished she had sought out help regarding her family. A judge handed down a 10-year suspended sentence. She must pay $39,000 in restitution and then she must

herself pay a $1,370 fine. If she stays out of trouble for the length of her three years probation, Russo won't have to go to jail. A defense request that Russo's conviction be wiped off her record if Russo successfully completes her probation was denied by the judge. Russo must also do 100 hours of community service. Let's take a listen to the weak link in the judicial system, Judge John Tillane. I can certainly appreciate and understand their thoughts that a criminal, the time in jail is appropriate. However, you have no prior criminal records.

You were and are very young. You have been cooperative with the prosecution and you agreed that at least the victims that directly donated to your campaign will be made whole by the restitution. You have also suffered a very real and substantial punishment of the local, national, and even international coverage of your crime. The court has determined that no further purpose would be served by rejecting the plea agreement and requiring the parties to take this case to trial, simply so the sentencing judge could have the option of placing you in prison, which would, that would be the result if I did not

suspend the sentences here today. Man, I would have this woman picking up trash on the side of the road for the next five years on the chain gang, for Pete's sake, with a big sign, I faked cancer and I stole money. But you know what? Long story short, she dodges prison time. You know what? Sometimes there just ain't no justice. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.