Twenty-Three Defendants Charged with Stealing over $220,000 in Welfare, Food Stamps, HEAP, Child Care and Other Public Assistance Benefits

185 Defendants charged with Welfare Fraud since 2014

Goshen, NY – Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler, joined by Sheriff Carl E. DuBois, today announced that twenty-three defendants have been charged with felony charges of Welfare Fraud and Grand Larceny for illegally obtaining over $220,000 in public assistance benefits administered through the Orange County Department of Social Services.

The enforcement action was the result of the collaborative efforts of the Orange County Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the Sheriff’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office. During the investigation of the cases, civil investigators of the SIU reviewed files of public assistance benefit recipients suspected of fraud, interviewed those recipients, and forwarded cases to the District Attorney’s Office for further investigation. Investigators from the District Attorney’s Office interviewed many of the recipients before filing charges against them. The fraudulently obtained benefits included Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly called “food-stamps”, Child Care benefits, Temporary Assistance (TA) benefits, and Medicaid benefits. The total amount allegedly stolen from the Orange County Department of Social Services in this enforcement action is $220,572.47.

This public benefits fraud enforcement action is the seventh one since District Attorney Hoovler took office. To date, 185 individuals have been charged with Welfare Fraud as a result of those enforcement actions. The total dollar amount of fraud involved in all those cases is $1,858,195.36. To date, the County has been repaid approximately $529,079.64 by criminal defendants who were charged in the enforcement actions.

Since the actions began in June 2014, the Department of Social Services has also collected $214,201.85 from recipients who voluntarily paid back benefits that they received, but were not entitled to. Those recipients repaid those funds after being contacted by the Department of Social Services civil investigators, without any additional arrest or prosecutorial action by the Sheriff’s Office or the District Attorney’s Office. By comparison, in the three years prior to the first enforcement action, the Department of Social Services civil investigators only collected $48,165.061 from similarly situated recipients. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, only $12,127.31 was recovered as a result of welfare fraud prosecutions, and only four defendants were charged. Three prosecutions were brought in 2011, one was brought in 2012, and no prosecutions were brought in 2013 against those who defrauded the Orange County Department of Social Services.

Sandra Bailey, 50, of Newburgh, was charged with Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third Degree for failing to report the income of her husband, this resulted in her receiving SNAP, Medicaid and HEAP benefits that she was not entitled to in an amount exceeding $34,848.

Prisca LaPlante, 52, of Otisville, was charged with Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third degree for falsely certifying that her father was residing at her residence in Otisville, New York, while he actually lived in Haiti. This resulted in her receiving SNAP and Temporary Assistance benefits that her father was not entitled to in the amount of $19,673.

Defendants arrested in the most recent enforcement action include:​

NAME
TOTAL AMOUNT
BENEFIT
AGE
ARREST CHARGES
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
SANDRA BAILEY
$34,848.75
FS, MA,HEAP
50
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
KRISTY BONGERS
(Jesser Ruiz’wife)
$3,496.70
CHILD CARE
35
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
JESSER RUIZ
(Kristy Bongers’husband)
$3,496.70
CHILD CARE
37
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
ORANE BREMMER
$7,298
SNAP
38
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
JENNIFER CINQUEMANI
$5,245.53
SNAP, TA
26
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Monroe
PRISCA LAPLANTE
(Saint Martin Davilmer’s Daughter)
$19,673.00
SNAP, TA
52
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Otisville
ANDREA DAVIS
$6,893.01
CHILD CARE
38
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
ERGAN DZELOSKI
$1,923.65
SNAP, MEDICAID
26
Welfare Fraud 4th
Grand Larceny 4th
Middletown
ANA FLORES
$36,378.75
SNAP, TA
26
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
PRINCESS LAMB
$9,722.19
CHILD CARE
27
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Wappingers
MILO MACKEY
$7,096
SNAP, MEDICAID
33
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
SAMANTHA NAPOLI
(Michael Napoli’s wife)
$2,606
SNAP
28
Welfare Fraud 4th
Grand Larceny 4th
Newburgh
MICHAEL NAPOLI
(Samantha Napoli’s husband)
$2,606
SNAP
29
Welfare Fraud 4th
Grand Larceny 4th
Newburgh
LILIAN ORTEGA
$9,551.00
SNAP
33
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
SHARRISE SCARBORO
$5,058
SNAP, PA
40
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Middletown
TACONDRIA DODSON
$25,436.00
SNAP
30
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
JIALIN TIAN
$6,460.00
SNAP
26
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Otisville
NICHOLAS TSATSARON
$1,129.60
SNAP, TA
31
Welfare Fraud 4th
Grand Larceny 4th
Newburgh
NANCY WEISSMAN
$18,531.65
SNAP, TA
37
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh
ANDREA WHITENY
$5,245.64
SNAP, TA
34
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Middletown
FOULICHARD BOYER
$9,517
SNAP,CHILD CARE
38
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Newburgh

The District Attorney’s Office and Orange County Sheriff’s Office are asking for the public’s help in locating the following defendants who are currently wanted on arrest warrants:

NAME
TOTAL AMOUNT
BENEFIT
AGE
ARREST CHARGES
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
SAINT MARTIN DAVILMER
(Prisca Laplante’s father)
$19,673.00
SNAP, TA
84
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Haiti
ANNA SHEEHAN
$4,462
SNAP, TA
49
Welfare Fraud 3rd
Grand Larceny 3rd
Walden

District Attorney Hoovler highly commended Orange County Commissioner of Social Services Darcie Miller, and the Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit for their work on these cases, as well as Orange County Sheriff Carl E. DuBois and the investigators in his office, who aided in the arrest of the defendants.

The maximum sentence for the Class D Felonies of Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third Degree is 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison.

The maximum sentence for the Class E Felonies of Welfare Fraud in the Fourth Degree, and Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree is 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.

“Stopping the theft of public monies, and recouping public money which has been fraudulently taken, has been a major priority of my Office since I became District Attorney,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “The over one-half million dollars that has been recovered as a result of these enforcement actions can be used to provide public assistance to those who truly need it. I am grateful for the hard work and cooperation of our partner agencies, including the Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit’s and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, as we continue to combat public assistance fraud. We evaluate all of these cases individually, and make appropriate plea offers to lesser offenses if the circumstances warrant it. However, in all cases defendants are not allowed to keep monies that they should not have received in the first place. Public benefits programs are designed to help the truly needy, and to ensure that money remains available to help those in need. Fraud in these programs simply cannot be tolerated.”

Orange County Sheriff Carl E. DuBois stated, “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office continues to partner with the District Attorney and other county agencies in this and other efforts to ensure the proper distribution of benefits to those that are in need, and to arrest those that choose to cheat the system by fraudulent means. The partnership in these investigations is unprecedented and maximizes enforcement efforts put forth.”

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kerry Kolek.

A criminal charge is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law, and it is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the State of New York’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.