Orange County, NY – Purported evidence of welfare fraud by Kiryas Joel residents has been destroyed by the FBI because it was inappropriately obtained by an Orange County employee.
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As previously reported on VIN News, Nicole Latrielle, a Medicaid worked for the county, discovered records that showed a disproportionate number of people in Kiryas Joel were receiving social services. After furnishing her superiors with evidence of the alleged $40 million in welfare fraud which was then passed along to the FBI, Latreille said that she was demoted and transferred, prompting her to file suit against Orange County.
A statement released today by the county said that the FBI, the district attorney and other law enforcement agencies continue to investigate allegations of fraud in the county but that because Latreille accessed confidential databases as a private citizen and not as part of her official duties it is legally inadmissible since it was not obtained through proper channels.
Orange County spokesperson Justin Rodriguez, who noted that Latreille may have compromised ongoing investigations by inappropriately accessing restricted data, called Latreille’s actions “not legally tenable.”
Rodriguez said that the county was informed by the FBI that no records submitted by Latreille will be used in the ongoing fight against welfare fraud.
“The FBI has destroyed the information provided by Ms. Latreille due to the improprieties associated with the manner in which the information was obtained and that none of the information from Ms. Latreille was utilized in any criminal investigation or prosecution,” said Rodriguez.
One has to wonder why an employee would risk her job to illegally obtain questionable information against a certain ethnic group of people….anti sentiment, perhaps? Hopefully she’ll have to pay the price for breaking the law.
I don’t understand why evidence of a crime obtained by and from a private citizen could be illegal. the Fourth Amendment only applies to government. Private citizens don’t need a warrant or even probable cause. Can some legal beagle help me out here?
She is a Medicaid employee, not a private citizen. So she used her government job to illegally obtain the records.
Since she was working for a government agency, she is subject to the laws that apply for the agency to produce information. She would not have had access to this info without her government status. It’s impressive that they destroyed this evidence.
she is a whitselblower and a good citizen, we need more of her and less criminals.
One of the gazillion ways the ‘One Above’ looks out for His believers and followers!
I work at a hospital and opening a medical chart that i was not asked to open is a a violation by law. Maybe they have similar laws.
In he medical field is a violation if you open a chart for no good reason. Maybe they have similar laws with welfare?
But, the fact remains that there is substantial fraud! Correct?
There is no question, that we give, in all kind of stupit high taxes for the government, much more than we get back. i’m not justifying all this fraud, but this worker is not a hero for fighting crime, because it’s also fraud from the government to take all our taxes, and use it for all kind of things that the people don’t want