cannabisnews.com: Father Accused of Tasking Daughter's Cancer Money 





Father Accused of Tasking Daughter's Cancer Money 
Posted by FoM on October 18, 1999 at 09:53:21 PT
By Associated Press
Source: Boston Globe
A Pawtucket man is being accused by police of taking charity money intended for his daughter's cancer treatment to support his own drug habit. Dennis J. Brooks, 44, allegedly used monthly checks of $100 to $200 from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to buy marijuana.
The money was supposed to defray the cost of treatment for his five-year-old daughter's brain tumor. Brooks has been charged with 11 felony counts ranging from selling drugs to assault with a dangerous weapon on a police officer. He is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions and is scheduled for a bail hearing on Thursday. Pawtucket Police told The Providence Journal that Brooks made the drug transactions in his living room in front of the girl. Brooks' spending of charitable funds is also under investigation. A spokesman for Dana Farber said the hospital let him take up to $600, the maximum allowed from a small fund maintained by families of cancer victims. The agency also helped him find another source of support. ''We have a resource specialist here who set him up with an outside group, for things like transportation and food,'' said Steve Singer, a hospital spokesman. Brooks' daughter has been placed in protective custody with a foster family and will be the subject of hearings in Family Court, where Brooks is facing a felony charge of child endangerment. The court could strip him of his parental rights. Just last month, the father and daughter were flown to Florida on a free trip to Disney World by the Rhode Island chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation ''We're shocked as a lot of people are,'' said Marcia LoPresti, of Make-A-Wish, after learning of Brooks' arrest. 10/18/99 01:05 Boston Globe
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