BANGOR, Maine — A federal judge on Tuesday found a Millinocket woman guilty of illegally receiving more than $20,000 in Social Security disability benefits between April 2009 and August 2011.
Following the trial, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced Nancy Arlene Nelson, 59, to five years of probation, which includes two months of community confinement, according to information posted on the court’s electronic case filing system.
The judge also ordered her to repay the $20,200 in benefits she received illegally.
Nelson has not yet been given a report date to begin serving the confinement portion of her probation, her attorney, Stephen Smith of Augusta, said Wednesday in an email.
She remains free on $5,000 unsecured bail.
The two-month sentence, recommended by her attorney, will allow Nelson to keep her subsidized housing in Millinocket, Smith said.
Community confinement is served in a halfway house, restitution center, community treatment center, mental health facility, alcohol or drug rehabilitation center or other community facility, according to USLegal.com.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Moore, who prosecuted the case, said Wednesday that he recommended Nelson serve seven months in community confinement.
Nelson was allowed to withdraw the guilty plea she entered in May 2013 to one count of theft of public money and go to trial before a judge on Tuesday.
Woodcock found that Nelson lied when she applied for Supplemental Security Income, also called disability benefits, in 2008 when she said she was living at a camp in Indian Township when she actually was living in Millinocket, according to court documents.
Because she was not residing full time on that property, which she purchased in 2006 with proceeds from a divorce settlement, the Social Security Administration considered it an asset. To qualify for SSI, individuals may have no more than $2,000 in assets.
She faced up to 10 years in prison. Woodcock ordered Nelson to repay the benefits she received.