BOSTON, Nov. 13, 2015—A woman who falsely claimed to be a victim of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings pleaded guilty to all charges today, admitting that she lied to receive nearly $40,000 in cash and benefits from public agencies and private individuals – including the students of a Mattapan elementary school, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOANNA LEIGH (D.O.B. 2/1/74) of Jamaica Plain admitted to five counts of larceny over $250 by false pretenses and one count of making a false claim to a government agency. Assistant District Attorney Greer Spatz recommended that she serve two to three years in state prison and pay full restitution.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp imposed one year in a house of correction, suspended for a three-year probationary period. Krupp also ordered that she pay full restitution, perform 300 hours of community service, undergo a mental health evaluation, and take part in any treatment deemed necessary.

“This defendant exploited the compassion of people and agencies who wanted to help those in need,” Conley said. “Every dollar she received was stolen from someone who truly deserved it.”

Had the case proceeded to trial, Spatz would have introduced evidence and testimony proving that Leigh attended a viewing party near the Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, but left the area and was on Fairfield Street when the bombs went off. She was not injured and did not seek medical treatment until about two weeks later, when she claimed to have suffered a traumatic brain injury running toward the second blast site to help the wounded.

Specifically, the evidence would have shown, Leigh obtained:

• About $900 in cosmetic dermatology services for facial redness – a procedure she had already undergone at least once prior to the bombings;
• About $9,350 through a GoFundMe page she created, using another person’s name and likeness to suggest that she was badly injured in the bombing and not receiving assistance;
• About $18,000 in cash and services through the Massachusetts Victims of Violent Crime Compensation program;
• About $1,850 in cash through a fundraiser held by students and faculty at the Mildred Avenue Middle School in Mattapan who believed she was a Marathon bombing victim; and
• $8,000 through the One Fund, which was created to assist those who were injured and the families of those who were killed in the bombings, waging a campaign accusing the charity of malfeasance when it sought the medical records necessary to categorize her in the same group as those who were killed, underwent double amputations, or suffered permanent brain damage.

The evidence would also have shown that she altered, misrepresented, and sought to amend her medical records to bolster her false claim.

“At every step, she lied and withheld information to generate money, services, and sympathy for herself,” Conley said. “While others were asking how they could help, she was asking how she could benefit.”

Boston Police and Suffolk prosecutors built the case through a painstaking examination of financial and medical records, as well as a review of video surveillance, witness testimony, medical opinions, Leigh’s statements to investigators in the days following the bombing, and the different and contradictory stories she began to tell to local and national news media weeks later.

Jassie Senwah was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Leigh was represented by attorney Norman Zalkind.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.