OLYMPIA — The squeaky wheel gets the grease — and sometimes a whole lot of trouble.
A widow who continued collecting state benefits long after she remarried was discovered by fraud investigators after she called to complain that her check was late.
Sharon Keen, 52, has been ordered to repay $434,851 to Washington state, the largest individual fraud in the state’s history.
Keen began collecting workers’ compensation widow’s benefits from the state in 1971 after her husband, Loren Bernard, was killed while working as an apprentice maintenance mechanic in Tacoma.
She moved to Detroit Lakes, Minn., and remarried a year later. She neglected to inform the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries about the marriage.
When one of her checks was late, Keen called to complain.
A Department of Labor and Industries employee returned her call, and spoke with her son, who said that no one by the name of Sharon Bernard lived there. He said his mother had remarried years earlier.
When Keen found out about that phone conversation, she called the department and said that her son was mistaken about her 29-year marriage. But the case had already been handed to investigators. She was ordered to repay the money she’d collected, plus a 50 percent penalty.
"I don’t know how much luck we’ll have collecting it," Labor and Industries spokesman Robert Nelson said. "But at least we won’t be paying her any more."
Wenatchee
Two men charged in teen’s overdose: Two 26-year-old Wenatchee men have been charged with giving a 16-year-old girl methamphetamine on the day she collapsed and died. Jason A. Wendt and Larry D. Tuckey each were charged with six drug counts Wednesday in Chelan County Superior Court. They were being held Thursday in lieu of $100,000 bail each. Chelan County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Hershey said the two men gave methamphetamine to Lisa A. Morrow. The two told police they were present when the Wenatchee girl collapsed shortly after 6 a.m. Oct. 31 inside Tuckey’s home. Morrow, who had asthma, died at Central Washington Hospital that night without regaining consciousness.
Ashford
Diesel spill at Mount Rainier National Park: Officials at Mount Rainier National Park were working Thursday to contain a spill of diesel heating fuel near Paradise Creek on the south side of the mountain. As much as 2,000 gallons may have been spilled. The spill apparently came from a break in a line from a fuel tank that serves a restroom and equipment garage below Narada Falls, the National Park Service reported. It’s not clear how much fuel has leaked, but park officials said the 3,000-gallon tank was filled on Tuesday. When the tank level was checked Thursday morning, it was down about 2,000 gallons.
SeaTac
Airport concourse cleared: Confusion over security screening of a woman in a wheelchair resulted in evacuation of a concourse and delay of flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The problem arose after the woman, traveling with her son, passed through the B Concourse security checkpoint about 11 a.m. Wednesday, airport spokesman Bob Parker said. After the woman’s son cleared a walk-through metal detector, security staff couldn’t recall whether they had properly screened her with a handheld wand, Parker said. The woman was located within seven minutes, Parker said, and was determined to pose no threat. Delta, Southwest and Continental airlines held at least five flights for passengers to clear security a second time, Parker said.
BC
Student’s bikini calendar raises campus ruckus: An economics student has sidestepped legal trouble by removing the University of Victoria name from his calendar featuring female students in bikinis. Jordan Clarke, 19, applied tape to covers of the "Girls of UVic" calendars, transforming the title to "Girls of Victoria." He also changed the name on his Web site although the address remained uvicgirls.com. The university, angry that he used its name and logo without permission, had demanded he destroy all 1,000 copies of the calendar. Clarke said the controversy helped generate 4,000 hits on the Web site, and brought him offers of legal, production and promotional help. He produced the calendar to earn tuition money and to demonstrate entrepreneurial skills so that he could win admission to business school.
Oregon
Still no sign of missing plane: Searchers found no sign Thursday of a small plane with two people aboard that disappeared on a flight between northern California and Port Angeles. The second-day search focused along the southern Oregon coast near Brookings. Civil Air Patrol planes from California and Oregon also looked along the mountainous coastal region. Flight data indicated that the plane disappeared from radar screens near Brookings. The pilot was identified as Yury Avrutin and the passenger as Dengt-Olou Sjostrom by Air Force Rescue Center officials in Langley, Va. The Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles identified Avrutin as co-founder of AquaEnergy Group Ltd., a Seattle-area company that develops alternative energy sources. AquaEnergy is part of a consortium pursuing a $2 million demonstration project to generate electricity from ocean waves off the Makah Indian reservation, 60 miles west of Port Angeles.
From Herald news services
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