BEAVER DAM, KY — An Ohio County couple who police say shaved their child’s head and medicated him to receive charity donations for his “cancer” were charged Monday with abuse and deception. Sharon Ann Sheets, 29, and Milton A. Sheets IV, 33, of the 600 block of West Second Street were arrested by Kentucky State Police, accused of using their 10- year-old son to receive more than $12,000 in donations from community members. KSP Trooper Jerry Critchelow said he began an investigation when m e m b e r s o f the church that he and the Sheets family attend, Holy Redeemer Catholic hurch in Beaver Dam, became suspicious of the couple’s use of funds. He said people would see the boy jumping on a trampoline the day after he was said to have had brain surgery. “Just before hristmas, (Sharon) called the pastor and said her son was in stage IV cancer and the only surgery he can have is in Seattle,” Critchelow said. “Ever ybody doubted it at first but decided to err on the human side. Come to find out, they were in (Daytona) Florida.” The trooper said it is believed that their son, Jay Jordan Sheets, was being overmedicated on his prescriptions for seizures and other medical problems to make it appear as though he was extremely sick. Despite the hospital bill Sharon Sheets produced to the church from Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville for $4 million, Critchelow said a recent review of the boy’s medical history showed only one surgery in September 2005 for an ear problem. He said the mother admitted to forging the document for donations and that the family has been receiving money since that time.
Mother admits to duping community
Thursday, Sharon Sheets told a Messenger-Inquirer reporter during an interview at the Ohio County Detention Center that she never overmedicated her son. She said the boy took only medicines that were prescribed to him by doctors, but she said he would get up in the mornings and take pills for seizures and sleep apnea by himself. Critchelow said he thinks the mother would lie to several doctors
about her son’s medical history and when one doctor would want to wean him off a medication to make sure he was having seizures, she would go to someone else. Defending her son’s shaved head, Sharon Sheets said that she had shaved the heads of Jay Jordan and her other son, 11, and her husband all at one time, and she insisted that the wheelchair she would use to transport Jay Jordan in occasionally was purchased because the boy would sometimes “just fall asleep.” Sharon Sheets said she started lying to friends when she told them a doctor said there were tumors in her son’s ears and that they could be malignant. “Yes, I did lie to get money and I’m sorry — I lied and will apologize a million times to the church and will work the rest of my life to repay them,” Sharon Sheets said, adding that her son never thought he had cancer. “But I want them to know I never overmedicated my son. I
didn’t intend for things to go like that.”
Past conviction for fraud
In 2005, Sharon Sheets pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining public assistance benefits by fraud, including almost $20,000 in child care assistance, $8,000 in food stamps and $4,000 in medical assistance benefits. Milton Sheets denies knowing anything about the donations or fraud. He said he is the worker in the family and that his wife handles all of the financial issues. “I was thrown off guard because there were only two occasions I know we received money from the church, and on those occasions I was hospitalized for a month and so was my son,” he said. “I don’t know what she had told people at the church because I would never ask for money because I take care of my own.” The 10-year-old recently received stitches in his forehead from where he “fell on a glass bottle,” Critchelow said. Without knowing that the trooper knew of the family’s trip to Florida rather than Washington, on
Christmas Day Sharon Sheets wheeled her son into the church with a bandana wrapped around his head, Critchelow said. She told friends and family his stitches were where the tumor was removed.
On Jan. 25, the trooper and a social worker met with the Sheets couple to lay out a plan for the boy to see only specific doctors. But the family left town that night to “make sure their boys stayed with family” and the couple were arrested in Hammond, Ind., Sharon Sheets said. The two boys are now staying with Milton Sheets’ parents. “I haven’t met a person yet that wants restitution,” Critchelow said. “Everybody is so relieved that the boy doesn’t have cancer.”
