A 24-year-old heroin addict who perviously pleaded guilty to scamming people into donating money to a fictitious cancer charity that instead went toward supporting her drug habit was sentenced Monday to prison after violating the terms of a court-mandated rehab program.
Suffolk County District Court imposed the one-to-three year sentence on Brittany Ozarowski after she violated terms of her inpatient and outpatient drug counseling program, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said.
Ozarowski pleaded guilty in December 2013 to all 24 charges against her and was able to escape prison time. She had been indicted for grand larceny, scheme to defraud and forgery, among other charges.
A spokesman for the DA’s office was unable to say how Ozarowski violated the program, citing HIPAA regulations. George Duncan, Ozarowski’s Central Islip-based attorney, said the violation stemmed from his client smoking a cigarette, plus “multiple technical violations.”
“This is a girl that really benefited” from the program, he said. “She really successfully participated for over nine months, and it saved her life.”
Ozarowski was arrested more than two years ago after authorities uncovered a scam in which she pleaded for donations to treat a variety of cancers.
“There was no cancer, no chemotherapy, no radiation, and no medical bills,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said at the time. “There was just heroin.”
Ozarowski accepted donations through a PayPal account and created a website that read “Help Save My Life,” prosecutors said.
The scam lasted 13 months, prosecutors said.
