TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni
announced that a former Department of Corrections
officer was sentenced today for fraudulently
obtaining temporary disability benefits.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Laura M. Mamaligas, 34, of Sayreville,
who was employed as a New Jersey Department
of Corrections officer from 2002 to 2006,
was ordered by Superior Court Judge Charles
A. Delehey in Mercer County to serve three
years probation and to pay $12,512 in restitution.
Mamaligas was also permanently barred from
public employment. Mamaligas was sentenced
pursuant to her Sept. 23 guilty plea to
theft by deception. The charge was contained
in a Feb. 14, 2008 Mercer County grand jury
indictment.
In
pleading guilty, Mamaligas admitted that
between May 26 and Aug. 29, 2005, she illegally
collected $6,059 in temporary disability
benefits by falsely creating and reinforcing
the impression that she was disabled and
unable to work at the Department of Corrections.
Mamaligas caused a false claim for workers’
compensation temporary disability benefits
and health care benefits to be submitted
through the New Jersey Department of Labor
and Workforce Development, Division of Workers’
Compensation. Mamaligas admitted that she
was, in fact, not injured or disabled and
was fully able to perform her duties. Mamaligas
also admitted that she caused $6,452 to
be paid to various health care providers
for treating her purported injuries.
Detective Kristi Procaccino and Civil Investigator
Bonnie Apone were assigned to the investigation.
Deputy Attorney General Susan Kase represented
the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the sentencing. Prosecutor Brown thanked
the Department of Corrections, Special Investigation
Division, for its great assistance in this
investigation.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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