Sentencing delayed for doctor in ALS fraud case
By MADELAINE VITALE Staff Writer, (609) 272-7218
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
Dr. Charlene DeMarco and her live-in lover will be sentenced in federal court next month in a fraud case in which the Galloway Township physician told her patients that stem-cell research was approved for treatment of a thus-far incurable disease.
DeMarco and Elizabeth Lerner were convicted in December of taking thousands of dollars from patients who believed DeMarco had a cure for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The defendants, tried in U.S. District Court in Camden, were supposed to be sentenced today but the sentencing was postponed until May 30, said Greg Reinert, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The spokesman said DeMarco and Lerner — her assistant who also uses the name Elizabeth Cooperman — are seeking new lawyers, which was why the sentencings were delayed in the case before Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez.

DeMarco, 56, and Lerner, 38, were convicted on 11 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. During the 10-day trial, assistant U.S. attorneys Eugenia A.P. Cowles and R. Stephen Stigall argued that from October 2002 until November 2004, DeMarco and Lerner worked to defraud ALS patients and their families.

Assistant U.S. attorneys argued at trial that DeMarco convinced four Louisiana families that she could cure the disease — officially known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS — and charged them as much as $35,000 each for the treatment. DeMarco admitted to authorities that she never found a cure for ALS and she has given up trying to find one.

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