AUGUSTA, Maine — A Clinton woman will serve nine months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $47,000 in welfare benefits over five years.
The Kennebec Journal said 32-year-old Theresa Rice-Goodrich was sentenced Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court to three years in prison, with all but nine months and one day suspended, and two years of probation. She had pleaded guilty to theft by deception and unsworn falsification.
Court records said Rice-Goodrich misrepresented that her three children lived with her from January 2006 through August 2011 in order to benefit from the Temporary Aid to Needy Families and food stamp programs. Rice-Goodrich admitted to the judge that the children lived with other relatives during that time except for three months in 2010.
Rice-Goodrich was ordered to pay restitution of $46,394.
She stole more than the median annual income for a family in Kennebec county and gets 9 months? She should atleast get the amount of time it takes a person to WORK for that money.
Hold up… stop the presses… This article is an outright lie!
There is no welfare fraud in Maine!!! How many times do the Liberal
layabout, stay at home commentators of this digital newspaper have to
say it! There is NO welfare fraud in Mai…. oh what’s that? Oh…
this is a true story? With facts? About welfare fraud… well shoot.
Aaaaaaand engage Liberal flaming comments in 3… 2… 1…
Right. And when should the conservative “Diaper Man” start doing his time?
When someone brings charges and he is found guilty.
Hold up.. stop the presses! This article explains why conservatives want working poor folks in Maine out on the street or living in cars! Welfare recipients are obviously all genetically related. If one steals then they should all be punished!
Aaaaaaannnd engage Conservative lying right-wing nut-job comments in 3.. 2.. 1..
IAM THE WORKING POOR!! Do you think I want myself and my family out on the
streets?
Sobecause fraud has now been factually proven in a court of law… and it was so
refuted outright by commenters, those who comment that they were in fact
correct that there is fraud occurring WANT ALL WELFARE RECIPIENTS TO LIVE IN THE STREET??? BECAUSE WE WANT THOSE THAT CLAIMED THERE WAS NO FRAUD TO ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG AND AGREE THAT WE NEED TO FIX THE SYSTEM???
Your comment didn’t even address the issue. Hahah! Way to go the normal
direct liberal path and move directly to slinging juvenile insults and untruths
when your view is shown to be a baseless falsehood. Way to go. Way to be typical.
If you can’t take it then don’t dish it out. Now go get in your car. Its getting dark and the streets aren’t safe at night.
Get over yourself. As though any dawning epiphany you could bestow on me would be meaningful. I know who I am. I am comfortable in my own skin. I know how I live my life. And I know I am proud of it. It’s
that pride that helps me to make it through the day and gives me the strength to push harder, and to be humble enough to accept help when I need it. But I live on my terms, not the governments.
And now, people are being shepherded by the wolf! That’s what welfare has become, and it needs to stop. Their pride is stripped from them and they’re left with their hand out begging for the government sanctioned pride called EBT, or TANF, or bail outs, or tax subsidies or disability. Not everyone wants it, and those are the people that need it the most. But there are those who have turned it into a lifestyle. OUR COUNTRY CANNOT SURVIVE WITH A CLASS OF CITIZENS WHOSE ONLY ROLE IS TO TAKE. And that is whether we’re talking welfare or corrupt corporations. They both need to be fixed.
O.K. I’ll vote for that
So the way I figure, she profited $5222.22 per month comparing to time she will sit in jail. Us taxpayers carry the load of room and board (approx $110.00 per day). Whatever the court costs were is paid by us. She will never pay the money back. Hmmmmm. I’m trying to think if I have any children I can claim. I’m reaching that tender age where I’d like to relax for about 9 months.
Oh, and this stuff (fraud) goes on everywhere. FIND ALL OF THEM.
BTW – 9 months is a joke.
too bad she was not an attorney as she would have got off with essentially no punishment… based on some recent cases over the last year…
She should also be banned for receiving benefits the rest of her life.
It takes about 21,000 welfare offenders of this extreme magnitude to equal one single Wall Street executive who cheats American investors and mortgage owners out of $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars).
However, not only did Wall Street executives cheat the American people out of billions of dollars, they were bailed out, still sit pretty with their mansions, helicopters and yachts, still bribe politicians and still continue to create conditions of poverty for the ex-middle-class, which results in a handful of extreme welfare cheaters, and then everyone screams at the welfare cheaters, and forgets all about the cheating execs at
Goldmann-Sachs or AIG or Wells Fargo who have no calluses on their hands, never worked a full day of hard labor, earn money off stealing other people’s money, and know how to hide profit in the Cayman Islands, know that the good Ol’ GOP will continue to protect and bolster their corruption in return for regular campaign donations.
Hey Sprucie, stealing is stealing. Why don’t you run for office and change the laws? You seem to have all the answers.
Sprucie would far prefer to sit in the Cheap Seats on these pages and complain about others than personally suffer the slings and arrows of actually running for Public Office and trying to change the system from the “inside”… Oh, I forgot, politicians “can’t change government from the inside”!
at least sprucie talks about the issues. you two just talk about sprucie.
lol!
Way to stay on topic…..
So lets just give her a butt chewing and set her out on the street.
Wow 9 months that’s it. She should have to sit in there and work off a dollar a day. What a great judicial system we got going on!
I consider myself a Liberal and I am not ashamed of that. That being said, I do believe that there are people who abuse the system, and while I have no problem with honest people getting help when they need it, I do not believe the same about those that cheat the system. The way I see it, the people who are dishonest take away necessary resources from people who are truly in need, and that is just plain wrong. I also think that 9 months is a joke of a sentence, given the amount she took. I have a question, though, why doesn’t the computer system for DHHS not automatically flag children who enter into care so that parents who no longer have them cannot continue to receive benefits?
Good Question….except that the computer system is a bust, it turns out, after lots of money spent, the system is a failure…..too bad for us!
Didn’t Baldi spend million$ to “fix that computer”?
It seems there’s no system to verify that someone is telling the truth about their family circumstances. Did someone come forward and report this woman?
The Kennebec Journal had more in their article.
Whittier (her defense lawyer) said Rice-Goodrich’s income was Social Security disability, and she had other debts as well.
Whittier said her client took responsibility for the offenses, did not have long criminal history and that the longest stretch she has spent in jail previously was 23 days.
I love this post from one of their readers:
“Whittier said her client took responsibility for the offenses, did not have long criminal history and that the longest stretch she has spent in jail previously was 23 days.”
I shouldn’t laugh, but can’t help it. You know it’s going to be a hard rock candy Christmas when the best thing your lawyer can say about you is that you’ve never been in jail for more than 23 days at a time.”
what would be great is if we could get people arrested for the fraud that goes on at the Pentagon worth billions. We never go after them and its worth a hell of alot more. Not saying we shouldn’t go after people like this just seems odd we hear of the fraud from the media but noone is being prosecuted.
That sounds like a job for Superman…but you’ll have to get him off the golf course and the television first.
now if only they would shift their investigative attention to lewiston, portland, and biddeford…
Don’t leave out Rockland
What about that paragon of virtue, Nutter? He ripped the Mainecare system off for 1 million. How many years did he spend in jail?
Just when was he convicted of that?
True’s Pharmacy, which was owned by Nutting, over billed Mainecare by 1.6 million. Nutting owned the pharmacy from 1970 to 2003 at which time it filed for bankruptcy owing the state and feds 1.3 million. Another example of the fiction, “Corporations are people, my friend”.
What needs to be done here is someone in Disgusta should grow a pair and close the loopholes and change the law. A million dollars is a lot of money that could be used else where.
She must not worry some liberal will get her beni’s back.
I’m not quite sure….but some how this has to be Gov. LePage fault. Right??
yeah baby..good job state of maine.now countinue and get the rest of the.
My first thought was ‘great, now we pay for her room and board for nine months’. How about house arrest with a requirement that she work off her debt at a shelter, a food pantry, an orphanage. Of course, this would be dependent upon her disability, but if she is capable of perpetration fraud, she’s probably capable of doing some kind of restitution; obviously, she’s never going to be able to pay the fine.
It takes about 21,000 welfare offenders of this extreme magnitude to equal one single Wall Street executive who cheats American investors and mortgage owners out of $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars).
However, not only did Wall Street executives cheat the American people out of billions of dollars, they were bailed out, still sit pretty with their mansions, helicopters and yachts, still bribe politicians and still continue to create conditions of poverty for the ex-middle-class, which results in a handful of extreme welfare cheaters, and then everyone screams at the welfare cheaters, and forgets all about the cheating execs at Goldmann-Sachs or AIG or Wells Fargo who have no calluses on their hands, never worked a full day of hard labor, earns money off stealing other people’s money, and knows how to hide profit in the Caymann Islands, knows that the good Ol’ GOP will continue to protect and bolster their corruption in return for regular campaign donations.
Hey, is there an echo on these pages?
Didn’t I read all this further “up” the blog?
sounds like you are talking about Donald Sussman
And how do you expect her to pay it back?
Nice! We get to support her for 9 more months !!
Just enough time to get pregnant again, have the baby in jail, and stick the taxpayers for another round…
I wouldnt doubt it.
Is there no such thing as a welfare auditor on the government payroll that ensures people receiving benefits actually qualify for them? If not, there should be. It would be easy to tell if those receiving TANF benefits actually qualify by doing some research on each family a couple times a year. The easier the system can be duped, the more people will dupe it.
Oh, and rather than house her in jail at more state expense, just cut our losses and permanently exclude her from future government aid until the money she defrauded is repaid.
i hope they start looking all over the country now.
So she still makes off with $606.00 Plus nine months and one day of free board and rent ,Sounds like a good deal.
I was told this doesnt happen……….I hope they are right about voter fraud…..They say that doesnt happen too…
Good catch Mr. LePage, keep up the great work, you caught this crook.
“Clinton woman gets 9 months for stealing almost $47,000 in welfare benefits” and some people on Wall Street steal billions and get a cozy retirement.
The humble Farmer