Texas Prom Queen Arrested for Faking Cancer, Taking $17,000 in Donations

El Paso Times

Wonder If They Have Prom Queens in Hell?

Is being the star of your own prom worth selling your soul? Apparently to 19-year-old Texan Angie Gomez it is.

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Gomez was arrested and charged with theft-by-deception Friday, after duping friends, family and strangers into giving her more than $17,000 and her own prom when she told them she had leukemia and was dying.

Gomez, from Horizon City, Texas, told her friends, family and fiancé in January 2011 that she was dying of the disease, and set up her own foundation -- "Achieve the Dream" -- and received more than $17,000 in cash, checks, gift cards and fundraising donations for it. She was even invited to speak at other schools about her plight.

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The teen also told her schoolmates that she had to miss prom because of her illness, so, in June 2011, another prom was held just for her.

That was also around the time police received the first of several complaints that Gomez did not appear to be ill, the El Paso Times reports.

Gomez, who is reportedly four-foot-seven and weighs 65 pounds, told people she had had cancer as a child, and that it had recurred and left her with just six months to live, but after the first complaint rolled in, police opened an investigation.

The investigation found no evidence that Gomez was as sick as she claimed to be -- or sick at all -- and detectives also spoke to her mother, who said she wasn't aware of how much money her daughter had been receiving from well-wishers.

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The mother said she thought Gomez was "trying to straighten out the matter," but the Times reports it's unclear whether or not Gomez has returned her ill-gotten gains.

Meanwhile, Gomez has been jailed, and her bond was set at $50,000.

Though, shouldn't it be $50,000, plus that $17,000 she allegedly took from well-intentioned people?