Police say man lied about having cancer

AUSTIN (KXAN) - An Austin man on probation is facing felony charges after authorities said he lied about suffering from terminal breast cancer to avoid court-ordered community supervision.

After missing several appointments with his probation officer, Brian Bonniwell, 32, provided a written excuse that he had breast cancer and was receiving treatment, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday.

The letter, which Bonniwell gave his community supervision officer on July 20, 2010, was purported to be from Texas Oncology-South Austin. The letter indicated that Bonniwell had been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and had "crossed over into terminal status."

A grand jury subpoena was issued to Texas Oncology for the medical records of Bonniwell. There was no record of Bonniwell ever being a patient of Texas Oncology nor receiving medical services from its treatment outlets.

In March 2005, Bonniwell was sentenced to 10 years of probation stemming from a criminal charge of burglary of habitation. A condition of that probation was that Bonniwell had to report in person to his community supervision officer on the second Wednesday of each month.

Bonniwell faces third-degree felony charges for fabricating physical evidence and is currently being held in the Travis County jail.