Case worker must pay nearly $234,000 for food stamp fraud in North Carolina, feds say
A former social services worker in North Carolina accused of diverting federal benefits from ineligible applicants to herself was sentenced to prison on Friday.
Lakisha Victoria McDougald, 32, was ordered to spend two and a half years in federal prison and pay $233,913 in restitution after she pleaded guilty to stealing government funds earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a news release.
McDougald worked as a caseworker for the Department of Social Services in Harnett County at the time of the involved activities.
Defense attorneys representing her did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment. But in federal court filings, they said the alleged fraud occurred at a tumultuous point in McDougald’s life.
“Ms. McDougald’s conduct was certainly criminal and she knows that she violated the law and will be punished,” her attorneys said. “However, the court should be mindful that part of the reason for Ms. McDougald’s conduct was not motivated by personal gain but a need to assist both her grandmother and father in their time of declining health and impending death.”
McDougald started working for Harnett County in 2014, prosecutors said. Her job included interviewing individuals applying for income-based federal assistance programs and determining their eligibility.
One of those programs was the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides SNAP benefits to low-income families “so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency,” according to the USDA.
Prosecutors said McDougald used her position to log into state computer networks and change the accounts of individuals enrolled in SNAP who were no longer eligible. She is accused of directing EBT cards registered in their names to her home address and adding nonexistent dependents to their files to increase the benefits.
McDougald then used those cards for herself or sold them to others, according to court documents.
In one instance, an applicant had moved from Harnett County to Florida. Prosecutors said McDougald changed the address on that person’s account and added three fake dependents “to drive up the benefit amount.”
From 2014 to 2019, McDougald is accused of stealing more than $200,000 in government funds.
McDougald was charged by criminal information in November and pleaded guilty in May to one count of theft of government funds, court filings show.
Her defense attorneys had asked the court for a lighter sentence, saying she was recently divorced from a man who had fathered two children and couldn’t afford to pay her alimony when she started working for the county. Around the same time, her grandmother was reportedly diagnosed with kidney cancer and her father was diagnosed with ALS — also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
McDougald was their primary caregiver, including driving them to doctor’s appointments, her attorneys said. She eventually moved in with her grandmother, and she also helped care for her step-siblings while her father was hospitalized.
By the time her father and grandmother died just three months apart, her attorneys said, McDougald had all but exhausted her savings.
“I remember asking my friends to pray for my niece because as difficult as it was for me, I couldn’t imagine losing a parent and a grandparent within such a short period of time,” McDougald’s aunt wrote in a letter to the court. “She got through it, and to this day, I honestly don’t know how.”
Defense attorneys said McDougald currently works at a meat plant and has moved in with family to afford her bills. She has reportedly had severe depression and struggled with suicidal thoughts since her arrest.
On Friday, the judge sentenced her at the low end of the recommended range.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Case worker must pay nearly $234,000 for food stamp fraud in North Carolina, feds say."
