Coco Berthmann describes how she was once a sufferer of human trafficking throughout a panel dialogue on the Human Trafficking Coverage and Training Summit on the Malouf Basis in Logan on April 17, 2021. She was once arrested Wednesday for investigation of communications fraud. (Spenser Tons, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 5-6 mins
SOUTH JORDAN — A Utah girl and suggest for human rights and combating human trafficking has been arrested and accused of faking a most cancers analysis and gathering 1000’s of greenbacks for scientific bills.
Coco Berthmann, 28, was once booked into the Salt Lake County Prison on Wednesday for investigation of communications fraud. No formal fees were filed in opposition to her.
Berthmann claims her circle of relatives trafficked her for the primary 15 years of her existence till she ran clear of house and has shared her tale in a couple of public settings.
Police started investigating Berthmann initially of February after receiving a tip that she “was once falsely mentioning she had level 3 mantle cellular lymphoma most cancers to be able to download price range for remedy,” consistent with a police reserving affidavit. “The grievance has said Coco has been a ordinary liar right through the years, claiming Coco’s mom was once sending other folks to america to kill her, she had had a level 4 most cancers which was once miraculously cured, and she or he have been raped on many events.”
Police realized of a GoFundMe account that had raised greater than $10,000 as of Thursday. The fundraising effort — began by means of one in every of Berthmann’s buddies with the identify, “Assist Coco Struggle Most cancers” — states she has an “competitive most cancers and her diagnosis is unknown at this level, however the reasonable survival price is 30% with a existence expectancy of best 2-5 years.”
Detectives puzzled the good friend who began the fundraiser and have been informed that Berthmann had approached her and confirmed her scientific data indicating she have been recognized with most cancers in January, the affidavit states. Police say Berthmann didn’t ask her good friend to start out the GoFundMe marketing campaign, however “she had expressed monetary considerations to the author of the account because of the therapies being dear.”
A detective contacted Berthmann by means of telephone, “because of her being too susceptible to fulfill in individual.”
“Coco said she have been recognized with mantle cellular lymphoma and was once being handled on the Huntsman Most cancers Institute,” South Jordan police wrote within the affidavit. She then allegedly stated she left the Huntsman Heart 3 weeks in the past as a result of she may no longer be handled with chemotherapy, and was once running with experts in Alaska and Chicago on selection therapies.
The detective requested Berthmann if she had any scientific data to confirm her claims. “Coco said she did have data and could be sending me a replica by the use of e-mail,” consistent with the affidavit. The officer “waited to be emailed the scientific data from Coco. Coco by no means adopted thru with the e-mail.”
Police then served warrants on the Huntsman Most cancers Institute and the Utah Department of Occupational and Skilled Licensing to decide what drugs have been prescribed to Berthmann. They realized that Berthmann had by no means been a affected person on the Huntsman Most cancers Institute, the affidavit says.
“Moreover the one medicine that have been prescribed to Coco was once anxiousness medicine,” police wrote.
Investigators additionally contacted the physician in Alaska she stated she have been seeing and found out she was once by no means a affected person, consistent with the affidavit. Police stated they contacted the physician in Chicago and realized he was once a expert in treating post-traumatic tension dysfunction and anxiousness and “had not anything to do with most cancers analysis or remedy.”
On Wednesday, police went to consult with Berthmann in individual and confront her with the scientific data that they had discovered and tell her that “the docs she said she was once running with have been contacted and so they had by no means heard of her,” the affidavit says.
Police say Berthmann then “modified her tale” and stated she was once in fact in the hunt for remedy at Intermountain Clinical Heart and no longer Huntsman, the affidavit states.
“Coco tried to appear thru her Intermountain account on her telephone to offer scientific paperwork however failed to offer any documentation of her most cancers diagnoses,” consistent with the affidavit.
She then allegedly claimed the paperwork have been in a drawer in her area. Police searched the drawer however stated they discovered no scientific data associated with a most cancers analysis.
Berthmann is initially from Germany and has said she was once the sufferer of human trafficking. She established the Coco Berthmann Scholarship Fund to lend a hand battle human trafficking and has been a speaker at anti-trafficking meetings.
Allegations were raised claiming that Berthmann was once no longer a sufferer of kid intercourse trafficking and the detective famous the ones allegations within the arrest file. He additionally stated Berthmann informed him she was once these days running with the FBI and the Davis County Lawyer’s Administrative center “as a witness in intercourse trafficking” and supplied a case quantity and the identify of an officer she was once running with.
When South Jordan police contacted that officer, he said “there was once no open circumstances with Coco and she or he was once no longer running with Davis County as a witness for any intercourse trafficking circumstances.”
One in all Berthmann’s public appearances was once in April on the Human Trafficking Coverage and Training Summit on the Malouf Basis in Logan. The basis issued a remark Thursday, noting it has no longer labored with Berthmann since then however stated one in every of its primary tasks is to consider survivors.
“The Malouf Basis has procedures to lend a hand make sure the advocacy and content material we offer is correct and accountable. If the credibility of a person or their accusation of intercourse trafficking is known as into query, we in an instant examine and paintings to take planned and considerate motion to deal with the placement.”
The remark additionally referred to a 2010 find out about printed by means of the Nationwide Library of Medication indicating that the superiority of false allegations of sexual attack is between 2% and 10%.
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