A Clinton County man has been arrested on felony charges for allegedly submitting forged and false documents to Community Services Group, where he worked as a therapeutic support staff employee, according to the state Attorney General's Office.
Investigators allege Joshua Franklin Rogers, 30, was compensated in excess of $2,000 through his employer's Medical Assistance program for alleged offenses that occurred between mid-August 2008 and late October 2010.
During that time, Special Agent Jennifer E. Snerr alleges that Rogers "engaged in a continuing and pervasive pattern of fraud by inflating his work hours, documenting services he did not provide and forging signatures on documents in order to get his hours in so that he would get paid."
Community Services Group, located at 1000 Commerce Drive in the city, is a behavioral health agency that provides one-to-one intervention mental health services to children and adolescents, Snerr explained.
In her five-page affidavit, Snerr said Rogers was assigned to work with a student at Hepburn-Lycoming Elementary School during the 2009-10 school year. "Rogers billed for services on 13 dates that the student was absent. The school was closed on one day that he billed," Snerr said.
During the same school year, when he was assigned to work with a student at the Avis Elementary School, Rogers allegedly "inflated the time he billed on almost every day he worked," Snerr said. "On some days, he billed as much as two hours after the client had signed out," the investigator added.
Rogers is also accused of forging the signature of a Avis Elementary School teacher at least three dozen times, Snerr said.
During the summer of 2010 when he was assigned to a client at a YMCA day camp, Rogers allegedly "forged a counselor's signature" on required documents and "claimed to work with a client on two days the boy was not even at the camp," Snerr said.
"On four dates, Rogers billed for time well after the boy signed out of the camp," Snerr added.
With his attorney present, Rogers, of 1047 Brady St., Avis, was arraigned last week before District Judge Allen P. Page III on two counts of medical fraud and one count each of theft by deception and forgery. He was released on $10,000 bail.
