Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Monday that former Alabama Medicaid employee Natalie Lewis has been sentenced for aggravated theft by deception in connection with the theft of more than $100,000.
Lewis pleaded guilty to the charge in August. Lewis admitted to using her position as a Medicaid employee to approve fraudulent payments over 1,600 times during five years, totaling more than $100,000. Those payments were loaded onto an EBT card that Lewis used.
At a sentencing hearing held on Thursday, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Brooke Reid sentenced Lewis to ten years in prison, with three years to serve. After serving three years, Lewis will be placed on probation for two years, with the remaining seven years suspended. Judge Reid ordered Lewis to begin serving her sentence immediately in the county jail.
At a later date, the court will determine whether Lewis may serve the remainder of her three-year sentence in the community corrections program.
"Public employees hold a position of trust, and when that trust is violated, particularly when taxpayer dollars are stolen, there must be consequences," Marshall said. "This sentence makes clear that abuse of public office will not be tolerated, and the people of Alabama will be made whole."
As required by state law, Lewis will forfeit her state retirement benefits because she used her official position to commit a felony. While she will not receive her state-funded retirement benefits, she is entitled to the contributions she made to her retirement account, along with interest. Lewis has agreed that those funds will be applied toward restitution owed. The Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated and prosecuted the case after the Alabama Medicaid Agency discovered the theft.
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