News & Features - Husband cleared in cancer hoax

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Husband cleared in cancer hoax

COLUMBUS, Ohio (UPI) -- Charges have been dropped against an Ohio man whose wife has admitted telling friends and relatives he had cancer to get money from them.

Phylip Chen, 38, of Columbus was told Friday he no longer faces prosecution, The Columbus Dispatch reported. He had taken and passed a polygraph test.

Chen took the test under an agreement between his lawyers and prosecutors that he would be cleared if he passed. If he had failed, the agreement called for him to plead guilty to receiving stolen property and tax charges.

Melanie Chen pleaded guilty to theft and received an eight-year prison term. She always told investigators she acted on her own, telling her husband his parents were giving her money for helping them with their Taiwan real estate business.

"The whole time, I was speaking the truth, and they weren't whatsoever the least bit interested in hearing it," Chen said.

Chen said he had little contact with his parents at the time and only learned his wife had told them he had cancer when he and Melanie were charged.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 11/07/2009

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