Riverside County woman accused of faking cancer for money taken into custody

MURRIETA, Calif. -- A Riverside County woman accused of faking a cancer diagnosis in order to scam dozens of people was taken into custody Tuesday after her arraignment.

Cristina Lagman, 39, has been accused of lying about her illness, saying she had terminal cancer and was facing financial hardship on her Facebook page. Investigators said she may have taken more than $3,000 in gifts and donations from a GoFundMe site.

After Lagman's Tuesday arraignment, a verbal scuffle between Lagman's father and several of her alleged victims broke out. Her father declined to comment.

"We went very public with her impending death that was coming within the next few weeks. She needed help with her bills, with food for her kids, rent, propane, all kinds of things," said Kelly Cowan, an alleged victim.

"This is someone who you can't trust. You can't just let her out into society. She's lied before and she'll lie again," Cowan added.

In court, the judge seemed to agree. Lagman was already on probation for embezzlement and welfare fraud.

It's "a concern to this court, in terms of my ability to rely upon basically anything that's represented to me by Ms. Lagman," Riverside County Superior Court Judge Judith Clark said.

Lagman entered a plea of not guilty. She's back in jail with bail set at $30,000.

"Really what I want her to get is help, if she doesn't have cancer, she has something, and she needs help for it," said Sunni Almond, an alleged fraud victim.