Former Social Worker Indicted For Welfare Fraud And Perjury
Suspect Used Deceased Mother’s Food Stamp Card

FRANKFORT, KY (April 20, 2006) – Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced today that a Franklin County Special Grand Jury indicted a former social worker, Lydia H. Johnson, on 30 felony charges of welfare fraud alleging she misappropriated over $1,500 in state welfare benefits and one felony charge of first degree perjury.

Stumbo said, “It is very important to me that our welfare dollars go to those in need. I will continue to crack down on welfare fraud.”

Johnson, a retired social worker, from Louisville is alleged to have fraudulently used Betty Keirns’, her deceased mother’s, electronic benefits food stamp card on thirty (30) occasions from October 2004 through March 2006.

On March 29, 2006, Johnson is alleged to have committed perjury when she falsely testified before the Special Grand Jury that she reported the death of her mother to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and destroyed her mother’s EBT card, and did not use the card after her mother’s death.

Johnson is scheduled to be arraigned in Franklin Circuit Court on June 2, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. The evidence was presented to the Special Grand Jury by investigators for the Attorney General who is examining systemic deficiencies in welfare benefit oversight procedures.

The Special Grand Jury has recently returned indictments against seven state welfare workers for stealing more than $250,000 from the state welfare system. Over the last two years, the Attorney General’s office has filed felony charges against 28 welfare caseworkers, charged with stealing more than $800,000.