Teacher Facing Fraud Charges for Helping Sick Student

Casey Smitherman is the superintendent at the Elwood Community School Corporation who is now facing insurance fraud, insurance application fraud and identity deception. According to police, she took her 15-year-old student to see a doctor and allegedly used her son's name. Smitherman claims she thought her student had symptoms of strep throat and that's why she took him to the emergency clinic.

After taking the teen to the hospital she received medicine for him through a prescription, totaling a cost of $233. Smitherman is accused of using her sons name to receive the treatment using his insurance. Police got a tip from someone about the doctor's visit and followed up with the superintendent.

In Indiana, this process is illegal and now Smitherman is facing serious charges including, fraud and identity deception. This could lead to a level 6 felony if the court finds that Smitherman had intent to harm or defraud a person, assume another person's identity, or profess to be another person. So far, the superintendent claims she was doing it to help a student who needed it urgently. Although she's still claiming her intentions were not malicious, she could stiff face some serious charges, a possible fee or jail time.

She was released on bail according to court records. She is also being put on pretrial dicersion program, which means if she is not charged with anything else, this incident could be expunged from her record. In Indiana, you can qualify for expungement if you are found not-guilty or if the case is dismissed.

Expungement does not mean the case is cleared from your record forever but it does get sealed and may not be released to anyone except a prosecutor with a court order.

You can find more information on criminal defense law here.