Thread: Former Mattawa day care provider enters guilty plea

Former Mattawa day care provider enters guilty plea

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A former Mattawa day care provider was sentenced to four months in prison and likely will be deported after pleading guilty to billing the state of Washington and the federal government for child care services she never provided.
U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko sentenced Erika del Carmen Lara on Monday and ordered her to pay more than $4,900 restitution to the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice said in a release Wednesday.
Lara, 26, pleaded guilty to theft of public funds, a felony, stemming from fraudulent billings in a federally funded day-care program while living in Mattawa in 2001 and 2002.
Lara has been in custody for nearly five months, so she likely will be detained by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to Mexico, Rice said.
Prosecutors allege Lara, an illegal alien, stole the identity and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen in order to obtain a day-care license.
Because Lara never paid the federal income taxes on the income, the woman whose identity was stolen learned of the identity theft through an IRS audit.
Lara told authorities that her mother, Celia de la O, helped steal the woman's identity, Rice said. Celia de la O was prosecuted by the state for her role in a similar day-care fraud scheme and was deported to Mexico.
Theft of public funds carries a maximum 10-year sentence and $250,000 fine.
Lara's indictment in September was the first in a long-running federal investigation into day-care providers in Mattawa.
The investigation sparked two lawsuits accusing state and local officials of violating the civil rights of other Hispanic day-care providers in Mattawa.
The lawsuits stemmed from an investigation by the state Department of Social and Health Services into alleged overpayments of state and federal money to subsidize child care for low-income families.
That investigation led to a state auditor's report that estimated DSHS had overpaid some providers more than $800,000 because of falsified and inaccurate attendance records.
In two separate lawsuits, 30 day-care providers accused the state of violating their civil rights by improperly questioning their immigration status.
The lawsuits have been tentatively set for trial in March.
Lara is not a plaintiff in either lawsuit.
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Just another illegal doing the jobs americans won't do!!