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TRENTON
– Acting Attorney General Paula T. Dow
and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a Union County minister has
pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza
Dagli, Kevin Clark, 53, the pastor of Bethel
Baptist Church in Westfield, pleaded guilty
yesterday (Jan. 25) to third-degree Medicaid
fraud and third-degree tampering with public
records before Superior Court Judge Stuart
Peim in Union County. The charges were contained
in a Nov. 10 superseding Union County grand
jury indictment.
Judge
Peim scheduled sentencing for April 9. Third-degree
crimes carry a maximum sentence of five years
in state prison a fine of up to $15,000.
At the guilty plea hearing, Clark admitted
that on Nov. 17, 2004, he knowingly and falsely
completed, signed and submitted a Medicaid
application on behalf of an elderly parishioner.
The Medicaid application required Clark to
list the sale of all real property by the
parishioner and any cash given away by the
parishioner within the past three years. Clark
admitted that he failed to list on the Medicaid
application that the parishioner had sold
a parcel of real property for $183,038. He
further admitted that cash from the sale of
the real property was given to him.
Detective Patricia Yellen and Deputy Attorney
General Yvette Gibbons were assigned to the
investigation. Gibbons represented the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the guilty
plea hearing.
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