Connecticut
CT alcohol and drug counselor sentenced for submitting hundreds of fraudulent Medicaid claims
A New Haven alcohol and drug counselor has been sentenced to a year in prison for submitting hundreds of Medicaid claims for services that were never delivered using identification numbers of numerous individuals without their knowledge to fraudulently receive more than $100,000.
Ethel Bethea, 61, was handed down the sentence Thursday in Hartford Superior Court, where Judge David P. Gold ordered that she serve five years of probation once she is released from prison, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.
While on probation, a violation would expose Bethea to an additional six years behind bars, Gold ordered.
Criminal justice officials said Gold also ordered her to pay $38,000 of restitution by Monday, with the remaining $63,408 to be paid while she serves probation. In total, she has been ordered to pay $101,408 of restitution .
Bethea was also ordered not to act as a Medicaid provider or provide services to any Medicaid recipient, criminal justice officials said.
Prior to sentencing, Bethea pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, health insurance fraud and third-degree identity theft.
By being found guilty of a program-related felony, judicial officials said she is “also subject to mandatory exclusion as a health care provider to certain federally funded health programs pursuant to federal and state laws and regulations.”
“Medicaid is a government program that provides health coverage to low-income, disabled, and elderly individuals, and is financed by both the federal and state governments,” the Division of Criminal Justice said in a news release.
In September 2018, Bethea was approved by the Connecticut Department of Social Services to be a Connecticut Medical Assistance Provider, official said. The type of services Bethea could provide were as a Behavioral Health Clinician with a specialty as a Licensed Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She operated her own business, Ethel Bethea Counseling.
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Inspectors determined that between September 2018 and October 2019, Bethea submitted hundreds of claims for services she claimed to have provided that were not delivered. Bethea used the Medicaid identification numbers of numerous individuals “without their consent or knowledge” in order to submit the fraudulent claims and obtain $101,408 “for these false billings,” judicial officials said.
Additionally, Bethea claimed to have no income and enrolled as a Medicaid recipient, receiving personal medical services paid for by Medicaid, officials said.
The investigation was led by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office.
Anyone with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public healthcare system is asked to contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney at 860-258-5986.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut prison inmate J’Allen Jones was suffering a mental health crisis in 2018 when correctional officers struck him multiple times, stripped him naked, put a spit bag over his head and sprayed pepper spray at his face shortly before he died.
Video of the series of events was released Friday by a state judge in Hartford overseeing Jones’ family’s lawsuit against eight officers and a prison nurse, following a yearslong legal battle and after both sides agreed to certain redactions.
The Department of Correction had sought to keep it sealed since 2019, saying in part that its release could present security problems because it shows the physical layout of the prison and staffing patterns. But Jones’ family, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and local NAACP officials called for publicly releasing the video, saying transparency was needed in Jones’ death.
“The events in the video are as disturbing as the events in the video of George Floyd’s death,” Ron Murphy, a lawyer for Jones’ family, wrote in a court document, referring to the man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “But in some ways, the video of J’Allen’s death is worse.”
Jones, 31, from Atlanta, was serving a 10-year sentence for robbery at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of New Haven when he died on March 25, 2018. Correction officers had been trying to take him to a medical unit in the prison at the time to get treatment for his mental illness.
Handcuffed inmate appeared in crisis as officers struck him
Portions of the 52-minute video show Jones handcuffed behind his back — and later with his legs shackled — as officers hit his legs and torso with their knees and fists, after he refused a strip search. At one point, an officer pins him down on a bed with a knee on his back while others hold him down.
Jones — who was having a schizophrenic episode, according to court documents — is heard yelling at this point, much of it unintelligible. He repeatedly shouts, “In the blood of Jesus Christ!” At one point, he tells officers, “I command you … to uncuff me now!”
Officers, meanwhile, tell Jones numerous times to stop resisting and to calm down. One officer tells Jones they’re just trying to help him.
About 17 minutes into the video, Jones appears to start having trouble breathing after the spit bag was placed over his head and he was pepper sprayed. Nearly five minutes later, Jones appears to be unconscious as officers struggle to hold him up and put him in a wheelchair. At around the 24-minute mark, an officer requests a nurse to evaluate Jones.
“Right now he’s just being dead weight, and I just want to make sure he’s OK,” the officer says, talking to the video camera held by another officer.
Minutes go by before life-saving measures are started
About 28 minutes into the video, a nurse starts performing CPR and an officer orders someone over the radio to call 911. An ambulance crew doesn’t arrive until more than 43 minutes into the video. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Hours after Jones’ death, the Department of Correction put out a brief statement saying that Jones had become “non-compliant and combative with staff and then became non-responsive.” It did not say anything about officers striking Jones but noted that there were no immediate indications that excessive force was used. It said life-saving measures were performed and he was brought to a hospital.
The medical examiner’s office determined that the cause of Jones’ death was “sudden death during struggle and restraint with chest compression and pepper spray exposure in person with hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” It ruled his death a homicide, although that designation does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.
In January 2019, a state prosecutor investigating Jones’ death determined that no crimes were committed.
An internal Correction Department investigation found that excessive force was not used. But the eight officers and nurse violated policy by not recognizing for more than seven minutes that Jones was in medical distress — although not intentionally, the investigation report said.
Punishment of one-day suspensions without pay were handed down to the nine staff members, Correction Department records show.
The correctional officers’ union did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Family lawyer hopes video release spurs calls for reforms
Allen was Black, and his lawyer says eight of the nine defendants are white. One is Black. In court papers seeking release of the video, Murphy said it’s important that the public sees the footage and can consider “whether his race or schizophrenia played any role in how his cries for help and gasps for air were perceived and handled.”
“I hope everyone who chooses to watch the video does so with an open heart, remembering that J’Allen Jones was a father and a son and that his family grieves every day,” Murphy said in a statement Friday afternoon, adding that he hoped the video leads to prison system improvements.
He added, “I found the video very difficult to watch as it depicts the painful death of another human being. So please take care of yourself while watching and if you experience overwhelming feelings, consider taking a break or reaching out to someone for support. Thank you.”
Responding to a series of questions from The Associated Press about the video and how officers dealt with Jones, the Correction Department’s interim commissioner Sharonda Carlos, said in a statement that the agency is continually focused on improving the services it offers to inmates experiencing mental health problems.
“Any loss of life in our facilities is a tragedy that we feel deeply, and our sympathy remains with Mr. Jones’ family and loved ones,” she said.
Carlos said she appointed a psychiatrist to lead the department’s inmate medical services in May, and the agency is rolling out major improvements to its mental health training for staff.
“Behind every individual in our care is a family hoping for their well-being, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,” she said.
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