A Plymouth woman who allegedly faked her own death to avoid relatively minor criminal charges was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail Tuesday.
Shannon Elizabeth Wilson, 44, is accused of using false identities when questioned by police, making false reports and failing to appear for several court dates.
She pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple charges that carry the possibility of up to 10 years in state prison.
Plymouth County assistant district attorney Alex Zane asked the judge to set bail at $100,000. Her lawyer, Joshua Werner, argued for $10,000.
“If substantial secured bail is not warranted here,” Zane wrote in court papers, “it is difficult to conceive of a case in which it would be.”
Brockton Superior Court judge Katie Rayburn ordered Wilson held on $50,000 cash bail, citing her false claim she was dying of brain cancer, her history of court defaults and her record of racking up new offenses while out on bail.
Zane laid out the history of Wilson’s multiyear effort to evade prosecution.
Between 2022 and 2023, while facing drunk driving and shoplifting charges, she and her lawyer claimed she was suffering from terminal cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and then ultimately died.
Judges relied on those claims to dismiss cases, excuse appearances, and deny motions to revoke bail, Zane wrote in court papers.
On Aug. 15, 2022, when she appeared in Hingham District Court to face drunk driving charges, her lawyer told the judge she was suffering from terminal cancer and had six months to live. She was released on the conditions she appear for alcohol testing and not drive.
But she didn’t comply with the conditions, Zane wrote, and a warrant was issued. Prosecutors moved to revoke bail, but the judge denied the request after Wilson said she had missed her alcohol tests because she had been hospitalized.
On Sept. 12, 2022, she was arraigned in Plymouth District Court on shoplifting charges.
She told the judge she had a chemotherapy appointment later that day and said she was suffering from terminal brain cancer and had approximately one year to live. Her lawyer told the judge she had Stage IV cancer and was being treated at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Plymouth District Court judge also declined to revoke her bail.
In late Sept. 2022 she appeared via Zoom for a pretrial hearing on the Hingham drunk driving case. Her lawyer told the judge she was then in “dire” condition, and in significant pain from advanced cancer.
In late Oct. 2022, her presence was waived after her lawyer said she was in hospice care and in the final stages of terminal cancer.
The Plymouth shoplifting case, charging her with stealing more than $600 in cosmetics and groceries from Stop & Shop, was dropped on Jan. 9, 2023.
The drunk driving case in Hingham District Court was continued to May 10, 2023 when her lawyer told the judge court she had died.
The dockets on both cases list the charges as “Dismissed — Defendant Deceased.”
But just two months after she had supposedly died — she was arrested by a state trooper for “erratic driving.”
She tried to keep up the charade, pretending to be “Saoirse Madden-Stone” visiting from Ireland, Zane wrote.
But the trooper, Justin Glavin, recognized her. She denied who she was, but after the trooper told her fingerprints would confirm her identity, she claimed once again she had terminal cancer, Zane wrote.
She ultimately admitted she had lied, the prosecutor said.
An investigation found there was no death certificate, no funeral, no hospice care and she was never a patient at Dana-Farber.
“The defendant was willing to fabricate terminal illness, falsify medical documentation and fake her own death to avoid prosecution for comparatively minor charges including shoplifting and operating under the influence,” wrote Zane in a motion for high bail.
“Having gone to such extraordinary lengths when the potential penalties were minimal, the risk of nonappearance is exponentially greater now greater now that she faces a decade of incarceration.”
She is due back in court for a pretrial hearing on May 19.
Werner did not respond to requests for comment.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.