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Hazleton’s Patty Lee Huemme-Gruenemeier is accused of accepting $21,000 illegally.
HAZLETON – A woman illegally accepted more than $21,000 in disability benefits while earning a salary from two jobs, state authorities said.
The state Office of Attorney General charged Patty Lee Huemme-Gruenemeier, 40, of Lafayette Court, Hazleton, with filing false claims with the Continental Casualty Co. claiming she was unemployed in order to receive a $226.68 weekly disability check, according to arrest records.
Authorities allege Huemme-Gruenemeier earned salaries from two separate jobs while she received the weekly check for 94 weeks that totaled $21,307.
Huemme-Gruenemeier was charged with two counts of theft and a single count of worker compensation insurance fraud. She was arraigned by District Judge Joseph Zola in Hazleton late Tuesday afternoon and released on $5,000 unsecured bail.
According to the criminal complaint:
Huemme-Gruenemeier was employed full-time with a kidney dialysis medical facility in Jacksonville, N.C., when she injured her shoulder in November 2002. She was diagnosed with a closed shoulder dislocation and was awarded total disability worker compensation benefits at a weekly rate of $226.68.
Huemme-Gruenemeier moved to Pennsylvania in 2003 and continued to receive her weekly disability checks. The checks began to be mailed to her Lafayette Court address in Hazleton in October 2007, the criminal complaint says.
Continental Casualty investigated Huemme-Gruenemeier claim’s that she remained unemployed while residing in Hazleton. The insurance company learned, according to the criminal complaint, that she was employed at the Walmart Supercenter in Hazle Township and at a restaurant in Sugarloaf Township from November 2006 to June 2008.
Huemme-Gruenemeier signed an insurance document in August 2008 indicating she was unemployed and not receiving a salary while collecting the disability benefits, the criminal complaint says.
Disability checks to Huemme-Gruenemeier were terminated in September 2008 before the Attorney General’s office initiated an investigation.
Authorities allege in the criminal complaint that Huemme-Gruenemeier received $4,888 in unemployment compensation from July 2008 to December 2008 after she was terminated from Walmart.
Huemme-Gruenemeier couldn’t be reached for comment on Wednesday.