Ashley Crooks speaks at her sentencing.
A former Ocean City therapist who admitted to stealing from patients in two separate cases blamed her own deteriorating mental health for her crimes Wednesday.
Ashley Crooks, 34, was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to stealing from one client while already on pretrial intervention for fraudulently using several clients' credit cards to pay for online psychics.
"I sought what I thought was help from online healers and spiraled into a state of desperation where I engaged in unbelievable actions," she said in a statement read at her sentencing.
Investigators first believed Crooks was a victim of identity theft, Assistant Prosecutor Ed Shim told the judge.
The owners for the Sanctuary Ventures app sparked the investigation after they found several credit cards were being used to fund Crooks' account, racking up $40,000 in charges in two months texting psychics on the app.
Crooks told police she did not even know how many cards she used.
Sanctuary's own internal investigation found 30 different credit cards attached to her account. Another 20 or so were declined at the point of sale.
After being arrested in February 2022, "I fully accepted the consequences I was given," Crooks said Wednesday.
But that was not entirely accurate.
Crooks continued her practice, now as a life coach. Only, many of her clients had no idea until BreakingAC reported about her crime and entrance into pretrial intervention.
Even then, Crooks denied her involvement to her clients.
Heather Bailey, a patient for five years, went viral sharing her discovery of the issue on TikTok. When she confronted Crooks about BreakingAC's report, Crooks told Bailey that the story was not accurate and that the credit card charges were a "security breach."
Patients then started reaching out, saying Crooks was double and triple billing them for sessions, or charging them for sessions they did not have.
One of those patients eventually filed criminal charges, which precipitated Crooks being terminated from the PTI program, and led to the two third-degree charges she pleaded guilty to in June.
Her plea deal called for 12 months' probation for each count to be served concurrently.
But the crime went beyond mere theft, Shim pointed out.
"It’s about traumatizing women, traumatizing men, traumatizing people who came to Ms. Crooks, trusting her (and) telling her their intimate thoughts," he said. "What she did is used that trust and she violated it."
Danielle Wolf said she has not been back to therapy since realizing her therapist stole $1,500 from her all while listening to the woman talk about her financial worries.
"I spent an entire session crying when I didn’t think I could buy Christmas presents for my family," Wolf said as she read a prepared victim statement. "She was fully aware of what the extra charges were doing to my mental health, the very thing she was trusted with to help protect and improve. I have yet to seek help since this betrayal."
Instead, Wolf said she had a relapse in her depression.
At least two other former patients wrote letters to Shim, but he said since they took monetary settlements instead, they were not considered victims and could not speak at the sentencing.
Wolf instead spoke on behalf of all Crooks' patients.
"Her patients that trusted her, that leaned on her, that needed her, and she failed us all in the worst possible way," Wolf said. "Ashley stole so much more than just our money. For me, personally, she stole my trust, she stole my confidence, and worst of all, she stole my safe space, the space where I went every week to talk freely and not be judged."
Wolf said her goal in reporting the theft was not to get Crooks in trouble or tarnish her name, instead it was "to stop her from ever performing these heinous acts again."
Shim lauded Wolf for being able to address the court.
"I think she’s become a stronger person because of this," he said. "She is brave and she is courageous. You don’t see that every day."
Crooks sold her Ocean City home to repay the money owed Sanctuary after the charges were reversed on her clients' credit cards.
She also said she tried to make good with her other patients. While she did not go into detail, others have reached out to BreakingAC saying that when they tried to report new thefts to police, they were put in touch with an attorney for a possible monetary settlement.
Crooks said at her sentencing that she would be paying the $1,500 owed Wolf before leaving the courthouse.
But Wolf wonders if her former therapist is really done with the lies.
Judge Christine Smith asked Crooks about her degrees at the start of the hearing. Crooks said yes to both having a master's degree and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University.
BreakingAC previously confirmed the records of all of Crooks' degrees. She received a master of science from Nova's College of Psychology in 2015. But there was no record of her receiving the doctorate a framed degree that once hung on her office wall claimed was awarded in 2021.
Meanwhile, Crooks said she is trying to make a new life for herself, which was made difficult when news stories of her original crime were forwarded to employers.
She now has a job in Massachusetts, where she relocated. She said she has been there for 1½ years, but did not say what kind of work she is doing.
She did say she no longer works in mental health.
