Ex-welfare case manager fraud suspect

Longtime county employee accused of stealing benefits

By Paul Shockley
Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A former longtime Mesa County Department of Human Services case manager and her husband are accused of improperly receiving more than $53,000 in welfare benefits.

Tony Padilla Jr., 45, and his wife, Venica Padilla, 41, now Aurora residents, are suspected of defrauding an adoption subsidy-assistance program and falsely representing they were financially supporting two adopted daughters, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

The fraud is the largest in recent years investigated by Mesa County and has been referred to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, Human Services spokeswoman Karen Martsolf said.

According to affidavits, Venica Padilla was a senior case manager with Mesa County Human Services’ child welfare division while the fraud happened between September 2003 and November 2009.

The affidavit said Venica Padilla’s employment of 13 years with Mesa County ended in October 2010, approximately two months after she was questioned by investigators.

County spokeswoman Jessica Peterson said she could not discuss circumstances surrounding Padilla’s departure.

The Padillas are accused of stealing from a program that provides assistance, a monthly stipend, for parents of adopted children with special needs until the children turn 18, according to the affidavit.

An investigation showed the Padillas took money from the program, despite the fact the girls were not living in their home, and they did not provide financial assistance to the girls’ caretakers, according to the affidavit.

Interviewed in August 2010, Venica Padilla initially said she didn’t understand the paperwork.

“Venica stated it was not her understanding that she was marking that they (daughters) were living with her on the review forms by answering ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Does your/son daughter continue to live with you?,” the affidavit said.

She later acknowledged she knew she was required to report that the girls were not living in her home.

Venica Padilla was employed in Mesa County as a senior Human Services case manager between March 1994 and April 2005, before rejoining the organization in May 2007, according to Peterson.

The affidavit said Padilla also was employed as a compliance investigator working in the child welfare division of the Colorado Department of Human Services for roughly one year.

The Padillas are charged with 28 combined felonies, including theft, forgery and attempt to influence a public servant.

Both are scheduled to appear in Mesa County court Oct. 11.