fb-pixelMich. woman gets 5-year sentence for false rape report - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Mich. woman gets 5-year sentence for false rape report

PORT HURON, Mich. — A judge sentenced a ‘‘tormented and disturbed’’ Michigan woman to at least five years in prison Friday for falsely accusing two men of rape, a punishment that came after she pleaded no contest to a cancer scam in a separate case that also challenged her credibility.

St. Clair County Judge Daniel Kelly exceeded the guidelines, saying it would be a ‘‘travesty of justice’’ to sentence Sara Ylen to less.

In December, Ylen, 38, was convicted of making up a story about two men attacking her at her Lexington home, 80 miles northeast of Detroit.

The jury also convicted her of tampering with evidence by using makeup to create what looked like bruises.

Advertisement



Ylen’s integrity has been shattered after years of being considered a sympathetic figure in eastern Michigan.

She accepted thousands of dollars from supporters and was treated by a hospice service for two years after claiming to have end-stage cervical cancer that had spread throughout her body.

But State Police found no evidence confirming a cancer diagnosis, and Ylen on Monday pleaded no contest to fraud in Sanilac County.

Associated Press