MORGANTOWN — A Monongalia County woman who raised money for at least five years, allegedly for her son’s medical bills, was arrested Thursday for using most of those donations for other purposes, according to a press release from the Monongalia County sheriff.
Sheriff’s detectives arrested Tonya Hawkins, 34, for a fraudulent scheme greater than $1,000, according to the press release.
From fall 2013 to fall 2017, Hawkins solicited money for her son, who she said had a medical condition and would require major surgery, the release said.
According to Hawkins’ criminal complaint detectives received a complaint in November 2017 and were given evidence showing the child may not have the medical condition Hawkins advertised.
Detectives inspected bank, communication and medical records, and learned Hawkins opened a checking account to benefit a transplant fund, and more than $30,000 was deposited into it.
According to the press release, in a statement to sheriff’s detectives, Hawkins said between 55 percent and 60 percent of the solicited funds were spent on items other than the boy’s medical needs, including making car payments for others, loan money and a purchase at Cabela’s.
Hawkins and her son were featured at least three times in The Dominion Post in 2014 and 2015. Each time, she was soliciting money to help pay for a double lung transplant she said her son needed. In 2014, she said he was diagnosed by the time he was 4 with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, a disease affecting the motility of the cilia lining the respiratory tract. The disease makes those who have it more susceptible to recurring respiratory infections.
At the time, she also said her son had undergone seven surgeries in less than one year.
Others became involved with the family, holding benefit concerts, poker runs, elimination dinners, walks and golf scrambles to help pay for medical bills, according to The Dominion Post archives.
More recently, Hawkins acted as a spokesperson for a family, whose 8-year-old daughter was accidentally shot by a family member in July 2018.
Hawkins was arraigned Thursday before Magistrate Darris Summers and released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
