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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) —
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed Medicaid fraud and identity theft charges against a Texas woman.
Pruitt said Friday 37-year-old Melody Lewis of Dallas fraudulently billed the Oklahoma HealthCare Authority for nearly $75,000 from October 2011 through September 2014.
Court records do not list an attorney for Lewis.
Pruitt says Lewis worked for several behavioral counseling agencies in the Oklahoma City area when she used the identities of 65 different Medicaid recipients to file more than 1,000 claims for face-to-face services. Pruitt says investigators found that Lewis was traveling out of state when she claimed to have provided the face-to-face services.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) —
A South Texas jailer has been accused of smuggling drugs to inmates.
Bexar (bayr) County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau says 22-year-old Deputy Termaine (tur-MAYN') Elliott was arrested Friday at work in San Antonio.
Pamerleau says undercover investigators believe Elliott was transporting drugs and other contraband to inmates. She declined to identify what drugs were involved, including some confiscated from Elliott when he was arrested.
Elliott joined the sheriff's department in February and was assigned to the Bexar County Adult Detention Center. He's charged with bribery and possession of controlled substances in a correctional facility.
The sheriff did not immediately release bond or custody details for Elliott, or information on an attorney to speak on his behalf.
If convicted, Elliott faces up to 20 years in each felony count.
DALLAS (AP) —
When Sandra Bland died in a small Texas jail last week, she became just the latest name on a long list of inmates whose deaths were determined to be suicides.
Bland's death following her arrest for a minor traffic violation added fresh fuel to the national debate over police use of force on blacks. It also focused new attention on the longstanding problem of inmates who take their own lives.
The traffic stop "is one issue and that will be dealt with," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said earlier this week. "But she lost her life in the jail. And that's what we have to look at." If the correct procedures had been in place, "maybe she would be alive today."
Suicide is the leading cause of death in jails after natural illness. In fact, inmates take their own lives three times more often than the average population, according to a 2010 study cited in the National Study of Jail Suicide.
Since 2000, the total number of jail suicides has remained fairly constant — around 300 a year, according to the federal government's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Improved awareness and monitoring have helped make suicides far less common than in the 1980s or 1990s.