Woman Is Sentenced for False Aid Claim : Earthquake: Woman gets probation for fraudulently collecting FEMA money by claiming she lived at Northridge Meadows.

After telling a judge she has been plagued by shame and remorse, a Carson woman was sentenced to three years probation Monday for receiving $2,300 in federal aid by falsely claiming to have lived in the Northridge Meadows Apartments, where 16 people died during the Northridge quake.

U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter opted to give Denise Jones, 36, a chance, despite requests by prosecutors to sentence her to three months at a correctional facility for illegally obtaining aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jones, 36, who has since returned the money, pleaded guilty in April to one count of making a false claim to a government agency in order to seek FEMA aid by phoning an assistance line and giving her address as Northridge Meadows.

“I don’t understand what’s with you,” Hatter told Jones. “What’s your problem?”

“I wasn’t thinking at all about what I did,” Jones replied. “I had a drug dependency and it caused a lot of problems with my life.

“I’ve been in agony,” she said. “I’m very ashamed of what I have done.”

Authorities were tipped off to Jones, and three others who falsely used the Northridge Meadows address to collect emergency aid, by a mail carrier who found himself delivering mail--including FEMA material--to unfamiliar names at the apartment complex after the quake.

The crimes were considered particularly ghoulish among a rash of quake-fraud attempts because of the high death toll at the collapsed apartment building, which made it the disaster’s deadliest address.

At least three others who used Northridge Meadows addresses have already been convicted of the same charges Jones faced. Two received prison terms--Daniel Richards of Hollywood was sentenced to two months in prison and Miguel Cordero of Van Nuys was sentenced to four months in prison--while Mary Mitchell of Paramount also received three years probation.

In Cordero’s case, authorities said he filed a FEMA claim using the apartment number where mechanic Pil Soon Lee and his 14-year-old son, Hwon, were crushed to death.

When reviewing Jones’ case, Hatter apparently was influenced in her relatively light sentence by the fact that Jones has a young daughter. Jones also told Hatter she has been off drugs for a year and a half and that she has been taking parenting lessons. Jones did not elaborate in court on the relationship between her earlier drug problems and filing a false FEMA claim.

Moments before imposing the probation sentence, Hatter told Jones she owes debts to herself, her child and society that cannot be paid from jail.

“It’s time you start repaying some of these,” Hatter said. “You’ve just got to stop doing these things that are self-destructive.

In contention was why Jones did not immediately return the aid money--which she said she never spent--to the government.

Eda Suh, a federal public defender, told Hatter that the money was not returned sooner because federal authorities failed to tell Jones where to send the check. Suh described Jones as “shy and timid.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward Moreton, however, pointed out that since the Northridge quake hundreds of people have returned money they were not entitled to receive.

Jones, he said, “was not one of them.”

Following the hearing, a man who identified himself as Jones’ father said, “We’re just glad it’s over. We’re relieved.” He declined to comment further.

Prosecutors say Jones is one of as many as 30 people who have been charged with filing false claims following the Jan. 17 quake. A multi-agency task force began making the arrests to signal that law enforcement authorities planned on pursuing opportunists who took advantage of quake aid programs.

Additional investigations are continuing, authorities said.