Woman got welfare illegally for 9 kids

BY VIK JOLLY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
February 10, 2011
SANTA ANA, CA

A woman must pay $80,000 in restitution and has been sentenced to 180 days in jail following her conviction for fraudulently applying for and illegally receiving public assistance for 11 years.

Aurelia Ramirez, 45, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday to one felony count of receiving more than $400 through misrepresentation and nine felony counts of perjury for filing false applications for aid, prosecutors said.

She received more than $79,000 in cash aid and food stamps, according to a news release from the District Attorney's Office.

Ramirez is subject to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold and will be deported upon completion of her sentence, the release said.

Prosecutors said that beginning Dec. 6, 1991, Ramirez fraudulently applied for public assistance for her nine children through the Orange County Department of Social Services by signing under penalty of perjury that her husband lived and worked in Mexico. But, prosecutors said, while she collected aid her husband held three jobs and lived with his family in Orange County.

Had she disclosed this information, she would not have qualified for assistance under the CalWORKs absent parent depravation rule, the release said. The state-funded program provides benefits to families with children when one parent is continually absent from the home and the primary wage earner is unemployed.

Ramirez's husband was unaware that she had fraudulently filed for and received benefits, prosecutors said.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/prosecut ... sband.html