‘I did it for my kids.’ Judge shows mercy to SC mom who scammed FEMA after 2015 flood
This is a tale of a second chance.
Ordinarily, Rena Quarles would be doing a stint in federal prison.
The 36-year-old Columbia single mother of six filed a false application with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $10,200 to repair water damages that she said occurred to her home in the 2015 flood that soaked the Midlands.
Confronted by federal agents two years later, Quarles confessed she had made the story up. So Monday, Quarles found herself facing more than a year in prison.
However, after hearing Monday from Quarles and her court-appointed lawyer, Katherine Evatt, U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs sentenced Quarles to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Quarles also has to pay back the $10,200.
“Theft of government funds — that is serious,” Childs told Quarles before passing sentence.
A factor weighing against probation was that more than a dozen years ago, Quarles got in trouble with the law — passing fraudulent checks, possessing drugs and unlawfully carrying a gun — and spent time in state prison.
But those troubles happened when Quarles was about 20 and hanging around with the wrong crowd, including the father of two of her children, a man still in prison, Evatt told Judge Childs.
After getting out of prison, Quarles earned a high school equivalency degree. She also worked a low-level job with the Ruby Tuesday restaurant for seven years, all the while looking for a job with better pay that could support her family.
In 2015, Quarles told the judge she became desperate.
Her family was living in a rundown, cramped trailer. Her oldest daughter was 14 and didn’t have a room of her own.
“I wanted a better life for my kids,” Quarles said. “Here I was, working hard, and it seemed that society would not forgive me. When I hatched this idea, I wanted to give my kids a proper space. I was just fed up with my kids living like that.”
After Quarles got the $10,200 from FEMA, she used the money to move to a better, bigger home, Evatt told the judge. She did not buy a new car or furniture or anything luxurious, the defense lawyer added.
And her life improved, Evatt said.
Quarles’ mother helps take care of her children, ages 5 to 17. Quarles’ 17-year-old daughter hopes to be a doctor. And Quarles has a job that pays her $21 an hour with benefits, enough to get off food stamps, Medicaid and other government-assistance programs that she was on.
But, last year, Homeland Security agents appeared at Quarles’ door to ask about the FEMA application.
Quarles confessed to filing a false application.
“I would never ever go through this again. This has been a nightmare,” Quarles told Judge Childs. “I’m very disappointed in myself.”
Childs told Quarles she would have to “extremely frugal” to pay back the $10,200 in restitution that she owes, even at the $100-a-month rate that the judge set.
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” Quarles said.
Prosecutor DeWayne Pearson, the assistant U.S. attorney, also recommended probation. Quarles helped prosecutors in another case where she was a witness, Pearson said.
“All the circumstances broke in her favor, and it does appear she made some significant life changes,” Pearson said after court.
Pearson said the U.S. attorney’s office in Columbia thus far has brought charges against nine people who had filed false FEMA claims stemming from the 2015 flood. If the defendant has no criminal record, they enter a pretrial diversion program. The charges are dismissed after they pay restitution and do community service.
After the 2015 flood, FEMA made a priority of getting money as quickly as possible to residents with claims, Pearson said. Quarles and others were caught through follow-up vetting on those who received emergency aid, he said.
Underscoring the seriousness of a false claim, Judge Childs told Quarles what would happen if she ran afoul of the law again.
“There will be no mercy or grace at that point,” Childs said.
This story was originally published November 26, 2018 at 5:34 PM.