A former Napa police dispatcher is accused of conning friends, coworkers and residents out of more than $50,000 by falsely claiming she had ovarian cancer.

Dannille Vanderpool, 34, is accused in a Napa County Superior Court criminal complaint filed Tuesday of bilking various groups out of the money under the false pretense that the funds would be used to pay her medical bills and help her care for her young daughter.

Vanderpool faces 13 counts of grand theft, one count of forgery and one of identity theft.

“There was an overwhelmingly good response” to Vanderpool’s requests for donation, said Sgt. Tim Cantillon, Napa Police Officers Association president. “We received donations from one dollar to thousands of dollars from individuals and groups.”

More than $11,000 was donated through the Napa Fire Fighter’s Association and $5,800 from the Napa Police Officer’s Association.

In an October 2007 Register interview, Vanderpool said she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001 and had five separate relapses, the most recent in May 2007. She told the Register at that time she had surgery and was able to return to work. Vanderpool also claimed then that the cancer was back again a month after surgery, leading to chemotherapy treatments. She said the chemo didn’t stop the disease and that doctors recommended surgery, but then determined her kidneys were failing and that she was too weak for surgery.

Cantillon said his group was approached in 2007 to help collect donations and distribute them to Vanderpool through a trust account. Vanderpool was a cosigner on the account, allowing her restricted access to the funds, said Cantillon.

“It could only be used for what it was advertised for — to pay for medical bills,” Cantillon said.

Money raised by Napa Fire Fighter’s Association fundraisers went into that same account, said Patrick Wamsley, association president.

Vanderpool has not been arrested, but Napa Police Cmdr. Steve Potter said he expects her to surrender voluntarily. She is scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 Thursday morning, according to the office of the state attorney general, which is prosecuting the case.

Suspicions arise

Concerns about her claims of being ill came up in November 2008, said Potter.

“There were some of her coworkers who were friends and some associates who became suspicious, and they brought that to the attention of our administration,” Potter said. “There were inconsistencies in what she was telling them what was going on and observations they were making.”

Cantillon said his group also noticed a problem when reviewing the monthly bank statements for the account.

“A check was noticed that was made out to an entity not medically related or even remotely related to anything to help her,” Cantillon said, “and that is what prompted us to look into this.”

Attempts to contact Vanderpool for comment, including going to her Napa home, were unsuccessful.

Potter said an internal investigation began based on the statements from friends and coworkers. “We started taking steps to verify some information and as we went through those steps our suspicions were heightened, so we began a criminal investigation,” said Potter.

Potter said a series of search warrants was served on Vanderpool in December 2008 and January 2009 regarding medical and financial records. A search warrant was also issued for Vanderpool’s Napa home.

Potter said Vanderpool already had resigned from her position as a dispatcher when that search was done at her house.

Results of the investigation went to the Napa district attorney’s office, which referred the case to the attorney general’s office, resulting in Monday’s filing of the 15-part criminal complaint.

Gerald Engler, senior assistant attorney general in San Francisco, said his office and local law enforcement authorities decided it would be better for an out-of-county agency to handle the case, because many of Vanderpool’s alleged victims are in local law enforcement.

Should Vanderpool be convicted of grand theft, Engler said he would expect she be required to repay the money.

“If there were to be a conviction in this case, that would certainly be a standard consequence to call for restitution,” Engler said.

The maximum punishment for grand theft charges is three years in state prison, Engler said. Conviction on grand theft charges could result in consecutive terms, increasing the total prison time to six years.