12:46 AM CST on Wednesday, December 14, 2005

By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV

Alica Fizer

A charity that collects money for babies in need became a victim of a con artist who received money she said was for cancer surgery, but was instead used to augment her breasts.

Kim Dobbs started Little Angels, which helps babies born at Parkland Memorial Hospital, in high school.

"Eighty-five percent are born into poverty and 50 percent have nothing to wear home," she said. "We provide them with things that they need."

Now an adult with her own marketing company, Dobbs said her heart was touched again when a client, Alica Fizer, said she had cancer that was eating her ovaries.

"Just like anybody, if someone walked up to you and said, 'I'm dying of cancer and I don't have any money,' we were like, what can we do?" Dobbs said.

Dobbs said she and Fizer became close friends and when Fizer wrote letters begging for cash, Dobbs sent them out through the Little Angels.

Fizer's boss, real estate escrow agent Barbara Kilgore, also gave Fizer money for her cancer treatments.

"I was sick for her," Kilgore said. "She had three children and I wanted to do whatever I could to help her."

Richard Kilgore, Barbara's husband, donated as well.

"When somebody tells you they are dying of cancer you don't ask questions [and] you do whatever you can," he said.

Dobbs let her solicit their real estate clients and checks came in from Georgia, Florida and all over the country.

While the donation checks flowed in, Dobbs said they weren't enough according to Fizer.

"We also gave her several thousand dollars from Little Angels...that would have gone to the babies," she said.

In all, Dobbs and the Little Angels gave Fizer nearly $15,000. The Kilgores said they even paid for her plane ticket to have surgery.

When Fizer returned, they all said she was a changed woman.

"When she came back from her surgery she was no longer terminal [and] she didn't have any cancer," said Richard Kilgore. "But she did have a larger breast size."

"She said the doctor made a mistake and made them two sizes too large," Barbara Kilgore said.

Soon they said they became suspicious of her new body and revealing wardrobe. They said their suspicions were confirmed by a call to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"Do you have this person on record?" Dobbs said she asked. "They were like no, we don't have that person. We don't have any program like that."

Dobbs said she demanded proof of how the money was spent and Fizer sent her checks that had appeared to have been altered.

"It was very obvious she had used two different pens [and] that it was whited out," she said. "The fronts and the backs did not match."

The group who gave to Fizer soon found out their checks went to plastic surgeons.

"I felt violated, like someone had raped me," said Richard Kilgore.

"How could you steal from babies to have breast augmentation?" Dobbs asked. "What type of person would do that?"

Police started their investigation with Dobbs' book of evidence and ended up with a troubling case.

"Disgusting, pathetic [and] very sad," described Tarrant County prosecutor Tonya Harlan of Fizer's ploy soliciting money for cancer and diverting it to breast enlargement.

Fizer was indicted for felony theft and to avoid prison she plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Her sentence was one year on probation.

"She was willing to admit to her guilt, that she did do it," Harlan said. "She went and got the full amount of the restitution together."

The babies at Parkland Memorial Hospital will get their money because Fizer had to pay the Little Angels back nearly $15,000. While Dobbs agreed to the deal, she said she was not happy about it.

"We feel like she did get away with it," Dobbs said. "She has not apologized."

Kilgore never received any of her money back and she believes she lost business from clients who thought she had Fizer fired because she had cancer. She said the words of one real estate agent still ring in her ears.

"She called me back and said my partner and I both feel the same...and that she would never bring me any business because I fired someone who had cancer and didn't support her," Kilgore said.

Fizer now lives in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb. While she refused to talk to News 8, her attorney said she is truly sorry.

After a year on probation, Fizer can apply to have the crime removed from her record.

E-mail greaves@wfaa.com