Broward deputy collected welfare benefits while employed, sheriff’s office says

A Broward deputy faces charges of welfare fraud, authorities said Thursday.

Deputy Shonte Samuels, 27, collected welfare benefits during time periods when she had a job, and therefore was not eligible for those benefits, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

Samuels failed to report her employment by the Florida Department of Corrections from June 2015 through March 2017. She is also accused of failing to report additional income after her employment ended, between May and June of 2017, Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

She was hired at the Broward Sheriff’s Office in 2017, but failed to report the entire first year and three months of her employment between April 2017 and July 2018, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

During those time periods, collectively spanning nearly four years, she collected $5,947 in benefits from the Food Assistance Program and $1,506.88 in benefits from the Medicaid program, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Detectives arrested her Thursday at the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Fort Lauderdale.

Samuels was still employed with the Broward Sheriff’s Office at the time of her arrest, most recently as a deputy at the Broward Sheriff’s Department of Detention’s Conte facility.

She has been suspended without pay.

Brooke Baitinger can be reached at: bbaitinger@sunsentinel.com, 954-422-0857 or Twitter: @bybbaitinger

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