Leone said she made up story to hide abuse

by Bill Gates

    A former Dundalk resident charged with defrauding two people of money by falsely claiming to be dying of cancer offered a novel defense last week.
    Dina Leone, a 1990 Dundalk High School graduate who now lives in Rosedale, said during a televised interview on Thursday that she faked having cancer in order to conceal being physically abused by her husband, Patrick.
 

  “People were questioning why I was bruised up all of the time,” Leone said during the interview with WJZ-TV in Baltimore. “I just couldn’t tell them my Prince Charming had been beating on me.”
    Leone, 37, confessed during the interview that she didn’t have cancer.
    “Did [claiming to have cancer] hurt people? Absolutely,” Leone said. “I am really sorry.”
    On Friday, however, Dina Leone failed to appear in Essex District Court for a hearing on a domestic abuse charge she had filed against her husband.
    During the WJZ interview, a lawyer for Patrick Leone called the abuse charges “ludicrous.”
    Dina Leone, whose maiden name is Perouty, was charged in November on two counts each of felony theft and conspiracy to commit theft.
    Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Lippe said his office received complaints last summer from two women who said they had given Leone money to help with medical bills and other needs relating to her claim to be dying of stomach cancer.
    “We conducted an investigation throughout the summer,” Lippe said earlier this week. “We went to hospitals to see if she was receiving treatment, and they said she wasn’t a patient.”
    A search warrant executed on Leone’s home found no evidence of medication or documentation that would indicate anyone living there was suffering from cancer, Lippe said.
    After Leone was indicted in Baltimore County Circuit Court in November, she was offered an opportunity to turn herself in.
    Instead, she disappeared.
    “We couldn’t find her,” Lippe said.
    Baltimore County police eventually apprehended Leone on Jan. 7, according to county police spokes-man Cpl. Michael Hill.
    Leone had a bail review hearing on Jan. 20 and was released on $25,000 bail. The State’s Attorney’s Office had requested bail be set at $100,000, Lippe said.
    The criminal trial is scheduled for March 23.
    Attempts to reach the attorney who represented  Leone at the bail hearing were unsuccessful. According to the state’s attorney’s office, Leone has changed lawyers several times and is believed to have no lawyer at this time. 
    With the publicity the case has received over the past two weeks, Lippe said more people have been contacting his office with claims of being defrauded by Leone.
    Leone told WJZ she had been claiming to be sick for three and a half years.
    “People have been calling in, and we’ve been following up,” Lippe said. “Just because someone makes a complaint doesn’t mean it will result in something. Anything is possible. If we find more victims, more charges could be coming.”
    Lippe said he had “no comment, no opinion” on Leone’s explanation that abuse by her husband led to her concocting the cancer story.
    During the WJZ interview, Leone said that, while she faked cancer to explain away being beaten by her husband, “he made me accept money from people to pay all of his bills.”
    One of the women who filed a complaint against Leone is Jennifer Lasek, a 1990 Patapsco High graduate and wife of professional skateboarder Bucky Lasek, who graduated with Leone from Dundalk High.
    Leone allegedly accepted $12,000 from Lasek and the other victim, court documents said.