A beauty queen isn't all about the crown and the sash. She has responsibilities to the community as a role model. She helps spread awareness about controversial issues like feminism and poverty. She faces consequences with elegance and grace.
What happens though if a beauty queen chose the wrong path?
Let's take Brandi Weaver-Gates as an example. The ex-beauty queen will head to trial because of faking leukemia with the purpose of scamming donors to donate money.
It appears that Weaver-Gates deceived 165 people who donated about $30,000 for a bingo event held to raise money for her supposed "sickness".
She's been jailed since her arrest last August. She was charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property, based on Today's previous report.
The former beauty queen planned it well. She declared that she had leukemia last March 2013 and numerous fundraisers were held on her behalf.
She even shaved her head and had her family members take her to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to receive treatment. She would make them wait in the hospital and then she would hide someplace else.
Based on court documents, her scheme was so elaborate that she even kept her appearance of having cancer. She was believable enough that donors kept giving money for her made-up medical bills.
The police received an anonymous tip. "There were some inconsistencies such as Miss Gates's hair was always there and never falling out, and she did not know the name of her doctors and other things like that,'' Thomas Stock, a Pennsylvania state trooper, told WJAC.
The hospitals also claimed that she never received any treatment in any of their facilities.
Public defender Deb Lux said that the former beauty pageant winner apologizes for the thefts and hopes to return the money as per ABC news.
Lux says she wants Weaver-Gates to undergo a mental evaluation. This is not to push the case for an insanity defense. It is to get an idea why it happened and to make the situation more sensible.
