Hotline calls reveal thefts, welfare fraud

A welfare worker stole more than $4,000 worth of bus tokens and passes meant for foster children and their families.

A retirement agency employee fraudulently claimed nearly $90,000 in welfare benefits.

And another welfare worker falsely told colleagues her father had died and took the money they donated to her in sympathy.

The three cases are among the most serious cited by a Los Angeles County report made public Wednesday that provides a digest of employee misconduct uncovered as a result of calls to the county’s fraud hotline.

During the six months ending Sept. 30, county officials opened 348 investigations into allegations of employee wrongdoing called in to the hotline and substantiated 73.

The misconduct included failing to report outside employment, downloading pornographic material at work and outright theft.

Three resulted in criminal convictions and four were referred to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecutions, the report said. Nine employees were fired or told they would be; six were suspended; and six resigned or retired.

Most of the rest were counseled or have discipline pending, the report said.

“It doesn’t reflect well on the county, but it’s hard to make people understand that when you have 100,000 [workers], some people go bad on you,” said county Auditor-Controller J. Tyler McCauley, whose office runs the fraud hotline.

County officials declined to identify any of the workers whose cases were included in the report, citing confidentiality rules involving personnel issues.

The bus tokens stolen by a Department of Children and Family Services employee were set aside for foster children and relatives who need transportation for such activities as family visits or job interviews, said the department’s director, Patricia S. Ploehn.

The employee was prosecuted, pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced to three days in jail and three years’ probation. Prosecutors were unable to immediately identify the worker, but Ploehn said the employee has been fired.

“The resources are intended for children and families,” she said. “Anyone who would steal from that doesn’t belong working here.”

The allegation echoes those facing at least four other department workers accused in recent weeks of misusing thousands of dollars worth of gift cards and entertainment tickets meant for foster children.

Ploehn said the accused, who have not been charged, include a handful of employees out of thousands working for the department.

“There are just so many people here who are taking money out of their own pockets to pay for presents and clothes for kids,” she said.

Among other cases in Wednesday’s hotline report was that of a retirement specialist who worked for the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn., the agency that manages the $43-billion pension fund for most county workers.

Prosecutors identified the worker as Rita Kay Brown, 52. Brown was accused of using a false identity to fraudulently claim $89,522 in welfare money, food stamps and medical benefits, said James Baker, assistant head deputy of the district attorney’s welfare fraud division.

She was convicted in June and sentenced to 16 years in prison, he said.

The welfare worker accused of accepting money from colleagues who thought her father had died has not been referred to prosecutors but faces disciplinary action, the report said.

In another case, an employee with the county’s Probation Department was accused of fraudulently collecting death benefits of more than $130,000 for her husband, who is still alive, the report said.

Prosecutors identified her as Damaris Amesquita, 30, and said she faces felony charges of insurance fraud, grand theft and bigamy. She has pleaded not guilty.

 jack.leonard@latimes.com