A former Nebraska law enforcement officer has been placed on probation for two years, ordered to serve four months of home confinement after 10 days in jail, and ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution for creating a GoFundMe account to pay for medical expenses he never incurred.
The Nebraska Attorney General’s office reports 46-year-old Jerry Esch, while a police officer with the Hastings Police Department, created a GoFundMe page in which he solicited donations to cover expenses he claimed to have incurred during cancer treatments. The AG office reports that while Esch did indeed have cancer, he didn’t incur the medical expenses he claimed to have incurred. Many individuals donated to the account.
Esch was found guilty of one count of theft by deception, a Class I misdemeanor. He was sentenced Thursday in Adams County District Court.