CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Cheyenne woman has been charged after using her grandmother’s social security insurance to pay her rent.
Jessica Britton, 30, was charged with three counts of Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult, a felony, and was seen in Laramie County Circuit Court on Monday, March 13 by Judge Lee.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, an officer took a report from a social worker at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in January 2020. This social worker worked in the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly and had called to report a theft.
According to the social worker, several SSI payments received by one of the patients she was assisting were found to have been going toward her medical care. According to the Medicaid rules, these payments were to go toward the patient’s long-term care at Cheyenne Healthcare Center.
Upon further investigation, however, it was found that the payments from October and November 2019 did not go toward the patient’s medical care.
The social worker had called the patient’s granddaughter, Britton, who stated that she had access to the debit card where the SSI payments went and had used it to pay her rent for three months.
According to the social worker, Britton’s grandmother suffered a “cognitive impairment” and could not have made a decision to allow Britton to pay her rent with the SSI funds. It is alleged that Britton used the SSI payments to cover her rent for October, November and December 2019.
Britton’s bond was set at 10% of $5,000 and her preliminary hearing is set for March 20 at 10:30 a.m.
