Judge orders mental health eval for N.J. woman accused of faking child’s leukemia

An Ocean County Superior Court judge has ordered a mental health evaluation for the woman accused of faking her child’s leukemia diagnosis to delay her criminal trial.
Alicia Campbell, 37, of Mays Landing, was released following a detention hearing on Monday and now has 30 days to undergo the court-ordered evaluation, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Bryan Huntenburg said.
Campbell was originally charged with theft, financial facilitation and forgery in March 2023 after she was accused of stealing $175,000 from the Greenbriar Oceanaire Community & Golf Course in Waretown, where she was previously employed as the senior community’s Lifestyle Director. She was indicted on those charges earlier this year.
Last week, she was additionally charged with tampering with public records, impersonation, forgery, obstruction of justice and making an unsworn false statement to authorities after it was alleged that the doctor’s notes she had sent to the court were fake.
In April of this year, Campbell requested and was granted an adjournment for her trial after she submitted documentation supporting that her child was suffering from leukemia and needed to be rushed to a hospital in Texas for emergency care, officials said.
Four months later, she sent more documentation to the court stating that the child was still receiving care in Texas and requested another adjournment. On the note’s letterhead, the court noticed that the address of the hospital was incorrect and there was also no contact information for the doctor, authorities said.
A further investigation found the letter was forged and that Campbell‘s child never received medical care at the Texas hospital, prosecutors said.
In her initial criminal case, Campbell is accused of spending $81,000 of her former employer’s funds on personal expenses, transferring another $94,000 into her personal bank accounts and paying a co-worker $1,900 to create fake receipts in an attempt to cover up the scheme.
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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at [email protected].