TRENTON – Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi today announced that an Essex County woman has been sentenced for presenting fraudulent documentation when applying for a job as a home health aide.
Bassey Justice Woodson, 50, of Newark, was sentenced on Friday, Jan. 11, by Superior Court Judge Eugene H. Austin in Bergen County to 182 days in county jail as a condition of one year of probation. Judge Austin also ordered Woodson to serve 10 days of community service. The sentence was based on Woodson’s Nov. 28, 2012 guilty plea to third-degree falsifying government documents. Woodson was arrested on June 1, 2012 and was incarcerated from that time until her plea on November 28, 2012. She was given credit for the time she had already served.
In pleading guilty, Woodson admitted that in May 2009, she presented a forged Nurse Aide Certification and a forged Employment Authorization Card when applying for a job as a certified nurse aide in Hackensack. An investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined the Nurse Aide Certification, issued by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, displayed a registration number which corresponded to another individual, not Woodson. An investigation by the State’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit determined that the license associated with the license number expired on Sept. 21, 2008, but the document was tampered with, so that it reflected an expiration date of Sept. 20, 2012.
The investigation further revealed that the Employment Authorization Card, issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security, allegedly displayed a fraudulent expiration date in 2012 when the card actually expired in 2007.
As a result of her fraudulent actions, Woodson was hired by Right at Home, 316 State Street, Hackensack, a home health aide staffing agency, as a Certified Nurse Aide and received $4,410 in salary to which she was not entitled.
Deputy Attorney General David Noble and Sergeant Patricia Yellen were assigned to the case. Deputy Attorney General Noble represented the state at the sentencing.
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