Feb 14, 2020

Kan. woman admits getting paid to care for man who was in jail

Posted Feb 14, 2020 2:00 AM
Gretta Smith
Gretta Smith

WICHITA, KAN. (AP) — A Kansas woman has pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid by claiming she was caring for a man when he was in jail.

The Kansas attorney general's office said in a news release that 52-year-old Gretta Elaine Smith of Wichita entered the guilty plea Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court.

The release said an investigation found that she fraudulently collected nearly $2,800 by claimed to be providing in-home personal care to 65-year-old Joe Ross Mitchell last year when was incarcerated on unrelated charges.

The release said Smith put at least some of the money and possibly all of it in Mitchell’s jail commissary account, where he spent it on discretionary items. He entered a guilty plea in the Medicaid fraud case in January.

Both of them are scheduled to be sentenced next month.