Women sentenced in Mattawa day care case

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A federal judge Tuesday sentenced five Mattawa women involved in long-running day care fraud case to three years of probation.

Four of the women, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of asking a witness to lie, were also ordered to make restitution of up to $2,816 each for overpayments in state child care payments.

Restitution has not been set for the fifth woman, who had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge.

All of the women were initially charged two years ago with fraudulantly taking money from state Department of Social and Health Services programs — which is financed by state and federal funds — to care for children of low-income migrant farm workers.

Although they eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges, they admitted to having been paid by DSHS for child care services they did not provide.

The case has been steeped in controversy since it first came to light eight years ago.

It began with a complaint from the town’s mayor — who has since apologized to Mattawa’s day care providers — to DSHS about why there were so many day care providers in such a tiny rural community. There were about 50 providers in the community of about 2,600 people. About 90 percent are Hispanic.

Allegations arose that the DSHS investigation that followed was racially motivated and badly conducted, eventually leading to federal civil rights lawsuits settled in favor of the providers, nearly all of whom were never convicted of a crime.

A state auditor’s investigation showed DSHS lacked oversight in paying day care providers and raised issues about improving background checks, attendance and immunization records.

“If the oversight had been correct and the training had been correct, we would never have gotten to this point,” prosecutor Jill Bolton said during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing at the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in Yakima.

The conspiracy charges came during a federal investigation into the Mattawa day care providers after the women told a cooperating witness to lie about the case.

The women who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge were: Silvia Farias, Maria Puentes, Maria Ruiz and Maria De La O. The fifth woman, Soledad Ramirez, pleaded guilty to theft from a government program.

“This implication that they were unfairly targeted and their hands are clean is not right,” Bolton told the judge.

The four women who were sentenced to restitution said they would start paying back the money Tuesday. The fifth will be sentenced at a later date, the judge said.

• Melissa Sánchez can be reached at 509-577-7675 or msanchez@yakimaherald.com.