ROCKLAND, Maine — A 41-year-old Washington woman who had worked for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services will serve 30 days in jail for stealing food stamp benefits if she adheres to an agreement announced Tuesday.
Tanya Bormet pleaded guilty Tuesday in Knox County Superior Court to felony theft of services in a deferred disposition accepted by Justice Daniel Billings. Under the agreement worked out by the attorney general’s office and the defense, if Bormet repays the $1,746 she received illegally in food stamps and performs community service, the charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor and she will spend 30 days in jail.
Assistant Attorney General Darcy Mitchell said the state entered into the agreement in part because of Bormet’s health problems.
Bormet worked in the Rockland DHHS office from 2003 until she resigned in January 2013 after an investigation began into whether she made false statements on an application for assistance. Bormet stated on the application that two stepdaughters were living in the household and that her husband did not work. In reality, the girls had moved out of the house and her husband was employed.
The agreement allows Bormet to seek a medical furlough once she begins her jail term. The deferred disposition is for a year but if she makes the restitution and performs the community service in less than a year, she can be sentenced then.
Bormet was one of four people indicted in April 2013 on welfare fraud charges by a Knox County grand jury. Two of those defendants had worked at DHHS in Rockland at the time of the offenses. One of the other defendants was sentenced in March to nine months in jail for stealing nearly $50,000 in benefits.