{ “title”: “Connecticut Woman Sentenced for Violating Supervised Release”, “description”: “Jessica Stuart, of Thomaston, CT, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for violating the terms of her supervised release after previous convictions.”, “tags”: “fraud, identity theft, supervised release, medicaid fraud, bristol adult resource center, SNAP benefits”, “rewritten_content”: “Hartford, Conn. — A Connecticut woman has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for violating the conditions of her supervised release. Jessica Stuart, 42, of Thomaston, was sentenced Wednesday in Hartford.
Stuart’s initial convictions were for healthcare fraud and identity theft offenses, according to the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Court documents detailed that Stuart, lacking a college degree and any formal training in applied behavior analysis for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), fraudulently billed Medicaid. Between May 2019 and September 2020, Helping Hands Academy LLC, a Bridgeport-based provider, paid Stuart at least $146,000 and submitted numerous fraudulent claims for services she was not qualified to provide.
Stuart stole the professional identity of a Board Certified Behavior Analyst to impersonate them and receive their salary. This resulted in Medicaid paying out over 1,900 fraudulent claims related to 12 children with ASD, leading to a loss of approximately $369,439 for Medicaid.
Stuart had previously pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud and one count of using false identification connected to health fraud. She was initially sentenced on Oct. 15, 2021, to two years and three months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release and required to pay full restitution.
Following her release from prison in April 2023, Stuart was arrested by Bristol police in January for misusing a SNAP benefits card belonging to a resident of the Bristol Adult Resource Center (BARC), where she had been employed. BARC provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities requiring full-time care.
Investigators also noted that Stuart submitted for and received state unemployment benefits for nearly a month after beginning her employment at BARC in June 2024. She also failed to promptly notify the U.S. Probation Office of her contact with the Bristol police.
Stuart has been held in federal custody since Jan. 23. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for the Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.nn”, “images”: [ { “url”: “https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WTIC/images/d87edd4f-210c-42c2-8ea1-7b4ba2109bcd/d87edd4f-210c-42c2-8ea1-7b4ba2109bcd_750x422.jpg“, “description”: “Stock image.” } ] }
