Attorney Says More Than 100 State Employees Fired In Food Stamp Fraud

An attorney representing state employees said Thursday that he believes more than 100 state employees have been fired for food stamp fraud.

Rich Rochlin, who has tangled with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration while representing employees for months, said the total far exceeds the number of 27 firings that Malloy has announced so far.

Rochlin made his statement on the day that fired workers met with NAACP leaders and state Sen. Eric Coleman in a conference room on Maxim Road in Hartford. The state NAACP president, Scott X. Esdaile, received a standing ovation from a crowd of about 70 people when he said that the NAACP is looking into the firings that have mainly included members of racial minorities.

Malloy has not updated the numbers since mid-March when he said the scandal had led to 27 firings, 10 retirements, and five resignations. All 42 employees who have left state service are potentially subject to criminal sanctions, but no arrests have been announced.

The administration did not have an immediate update Thursday on the number of firings and the statement by Rochlin.

The employees were fired because the Malloy administration says they falsified their financial information when applying for emergency food stamp benefits under the federal Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is known as D-SNAP. The program began following Tropical Storm Irene, which ravaged the state and knocked out electrical power to thousands in late August.  The emergency money was designed not only to replace lost food, but could also to cover storm-related expenses like property repairs and temporary housing costs such as hotels. Actual food stamps are no longer issued, and recipients instead received debit cards with a specified amount of money allocated to the account.

After saying for months that about 800 state employees were involved, Malloy announced in March that an additional 250 state employees had filled out applications for benefits. As such, an overall total of 1,053 state employees actually sought to receive emergency benefits.

Of more than 1,000 state employees involved, 685 have been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to a previous count by the Malloy administration.

The announcement in March was the first update since late January – when Malloy said that four state employees had been fired and four others had retired in the ongoing scandal. At that time, 98 state employees had been referred to their departmental supervisors for disciplinary hearings and possible firing. The eight employees who had left state service were included in that total, meaning that 90 disciplinary cases were still pending.

The vast majority of state employees who applied “were honest” about their incomes and liquid assets in bank accounts, Malloy said.

Rochlin said that some of his clients, some who have lost their jobs and others facing unemployment, are considering filing for bankruptcy. Overall, he has multiple clients facing disciplinary action in the probe. One of those suspended without pay for 20 pays was Lisa Prout, a state employee who went public with her complaints shortly after Christmas. Prout has filed a lawsuit against the state, which is still pending.

As the discipline has been handed out, more state employees have been seeking legal advice from Rochlin on how to file for bankruptcy and how to obtain HUSKY health benefits for their children. Many of his clients are single mothers who are raising their children and are “one or two checks away from no longer being middle class” if they lose their state jobs, he said.

 Malloy and his administration have repeatedly refused to release the names of state employees who have been fired, citing a three-page recommendation from Attorney General George Jepsen’s office. Jepsen and Malloy have a long relationship that dates back to their days as Stamford Democrats. Mark F. Kohler, an assistant attorney general, wrote that the names of anyone “applying for or receiving assistance from the Department of Social Services” for food stamps or other assistance should remain confidential under the law.

Rochlin has accused the state Department of Social Services, which administers the food stamp program, of muzzling its employees “to keep us from uncovering the truth” by an “unconstitutional gag order.” He filed a lawsuit on behalf of Prout to overturn the administration’s action. He cited a memo that was sent by an attorney for the department to DSS employees that ordered them not to speak to Rochlin about his investigation into suspected fraud in the food stamp benefits program.

Prout, a 45-year-old single mother who works at Connecticut Valley Hospital for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, applied for the benefits at the DSS office in Middletown following Tropical Storm Irene and received $524. She was investigated by the state “for allegedly understating income and allegedly committing fraud to obtain such benefit,” according to the lawsuit. State records show that, with overtime, Prout was paid about $82,000 in fiscal 2011.

Rochlin is seeking a ruling by a state Superior Court judge in Hartford that would rescind the memo, end the gag order and allow Rochlin to speak freely to state employees so that he could prepare a defense in Prout’s case.

“I would never risk everything that I have – my career, my dignity and my name – for $524,” Prout said at the time.

It still remains unclear whether any state employees will face criminal prosecution or might lose their pensions.  The law allows specific circumstances to revoke a pension, which can be done only by a Superior Court judge upon the recommendation of the state attorney general.