A woman who admitted to fraudulently accepting donations toward medical expenses for cancer she didn’t have received a six-month jail term plus probation and community service Thursday morning from a Lucas County judge.
Lisa Titkemeier, 38, of the 3300 block of Oak Grove Place, wept in Lucas County Common Pleas Court as Judge Lori Olender pronounced the sentence after bluntly expressing doubt that she had, as she told the court, taken full responsibility for her having falsely accepted charity from relatives and friends over a 20-month period that included food and in-kind donations as well as cash.
“I don’t think you take full responsibility,” the judge said, referring to a pre-sentence investigation report in which she said Titkemeier blamed her conduct “on some woman who told you to do it when you went to get some lumps checked.”
Titkemeier had pleaded guilty last month a single count of fourth-degree theft. Judge Olender said that while such a conviction with no criminal record carries a statutory presumption of community control rather than prison, she thought she might have been able to overcome that presumption in this case because of the crime’s breadth.
As it was, the judge gave Titkemeier three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service in her sentence, with the first six months of the probation to be served at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio. She also ordered $25,158.54 in restitution and held a 17-month prison sentence in reserve against any probation violations.
The community service time, Judge Olender said, “is a drop in the bucket, I believe, as to what you put your community through.”
Defense lawyer Neil McElroy had told the court no sentence the judge could hand down would exceed the “unspeakable ridicule and shame” to which Ms. Titkemeier had been subjected, both privately and publicly, since her misdeeds became public.
“The remorse I carry with me every day is so much that if I could go back in time, I would,” Ms. Titkemeier told the court before describing Nov. 10, 2023, when she admitted herself to Mercy Health St. Charles Hospital for mental health treatment as “the day that saved my life.”
“I know I am unable to change the past, and I will only strive to be a better person for myself, my husband, my two amazing sons, and my family and friends.... I will work on mending broken relationships I am responsible for,” she said while promising to continue with her mental-health care.
None of more than a dozen people in the courtroom gallery opted to address the court. Judge Olender said the case had generated more letters to her than any other she could recall from her long legal career.
Michael Loisel, chief of special prosecutions for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, said Judge Olender “covered all the factors that led to an appropriate sentence” while also hinting at skepticism about Titkemeier’s sincerity.
“She got caught,” he said. “She’s remorseful now.”
And Judge Olender told Titkemeier the hurtful consequences of her fraud went beyond herself.
“How are your children going to have a normal life again?” the judge said. “They are going to be paying for your actions.”
The restitution amount represents cash donations investigators were able to identify, including some from anonymous donors. The judge agreed at the hearing’s start that any funds that could not be returned to their donors should go to either of two local cancer-related charities.
An investigation continues, Mr. Loisel added, regarding a separate $1,006 donation related to the death of Brandon Stalker, a Toledo police officer shot in the line of duty.
Judge Olender initially ordered that Titkemeier be taken into custody immediately and be taken to jail, but sternly granted her lawyer’s request that she be allowed until noon Friday to get her affairs in order before going to jail.
“If you don’t show up, you’re going to prison,” the judge warned.
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