Black Hills elderly care worker gets suspended prison time for embezzlement
Punishment includes $42,000 restitution payment
A Rapid City woman has been ordered to pay $42,000 in restitution after embezzling government welfare subsidies.
Attorney General Marty Jackley announced Friday that Jessica Scott, 38, will avoid prison but spend 90 days in county jail after being handed a five-year suspended sentence this week in Pennington County. Another 90 days of jail time was also suspended.
Scott, a former board member at the Adult Day Center of the Black Hills, pleaded guilty to grand theft embezzlement in April after she altered billing documents, leading to more than $477,000 in excess draws from the South Dakota Medicaid Program, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the South Dakota Department of Human Services.
NEWS: Former tribal president sentenced to prison for embezzlement
“This defendant violated the trust of Adult Day Center, the agencies involved, and most importantly, the people she served,” Jackley said following Scott’s sentencing, which included the restitution payment. “Thank you to the participating agencies for working together to resolve this issue.”
The restitution, paid in full the day of Scott’s sentencing, will be allocated to the Adult Day Center, which had to reimburse $114,000 to Medicaid and $362,000 to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The funds will also aid multiple veterans who were required to pay insurance copays for services they did not receive.
The investigation into Scott’s misconduct involved several divisions within the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, federal agents from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Rapid City Police Department. The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
NEWS: New Noem documentary to detail governor's life, political career
Sounds like the sentence was a gift to Ms. Scott. She should consider herself very lucky