A complaint has been filed by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office with the Maricopa County Superior Court against Chalice Renee Zeitner for allegedly faking a cancer diagnosis in order to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion.
The joint investigation was handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Arizona Attorney General, and the Office of the Inspector General within Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
It is alleged that during March and April of 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona Zeitner told her obstetrician that she had cancer and her pregnancy put her life in further danger. Zeitner presented information to her obstetrician that she was suffering from stage IV sarcoma and that she was scheduled to immediately resume treatment in Boston, Massachusetts. She claimed the treatment would include the removal of tumors located in her abdomen and lower spinal area. On April 8, 2010 the defendant’s pregnancy was terminated at a hospital located in Phoenix, Arizona.
Zeitner, who was enrolled in AHCCCS, had her costs associated with the pregnancy termination paid for by the state because AHCCCS will only cover pregnancy terminations under limited circumstance including if the life of the mother is endangered.
It is alleged that after the pregnancy was terminated, information was obtained indicating that the defendant falsified medical documents purporting that she had cancer. The physician that was listed by the defendant as the person treating her for cancer was contacted and he indicated that he never treated the defendant for cancer nor has he ever met the defendant.
The charges filed on May 5, 2015 include Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, a Class 2 felony; Theft, a Class 3 felony; Fraudulent Schemes and Practices, a Class 5 felony; Taking the Identity of Another Person or Entity (2 counts), Class 4 felonies and Forgery, Class 4 felony. A warrant for her arrest was also issued at that time.
On May 8, 2015, the defendant was taken into custody in Columbia County, Georgia with the assistance of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force. She was using the alias Al Serkez at the time of her arrest.