CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Parents of 3 Charged With Welfare Fraud

Welfare investigators say they have discovered a family of five that has been collecting welfare benefits from at least five California counties and Colorado. The parents were arrested while trying to cash a benefit check in downtown Sacramento and were charged with three felonies, including welfare fraud and perjury involving more than $10,000 allegedly received during the past year. Their three daughters, ages 5, 7, and 10, were placed in the custody of a grandmother in Colorado. Officials said the couple used several aliases. The man gave the names Charles F. Larson and Roy Ernest Jewett; his wife gave the names Ellen Larson and Ida Lou Jewett. The county Department of Social Services said the family also was receiving overlapping benefits from Yolo, San Bernardino, Del Norte and Placer counties.