Scarsdale Dentist Enters Grand Larceny, Fraud Plea

A Scarsdale woman who worked as a dentist in White Plains pleaded guilty yesterday to billing an insurance company illegally, according to the District Attorney's office and news reports, but in an exclusive interview with Scarsdale Patch, she says she plead unwillingly and under duress to charges that don't accurately reflect the crime.

"I didn't want to plea guilty," said Joanne Baker, 52, in an interview with Scarsdale Patch.

She will be sentenced on August 31 to one count of grand larceny and one count of insurance fraud, both of them third-degree felonies.

The reports stated that Baker, of Myrtledale Rd., was ordered to surrender her state practicioner's license and pay $8,900 in restitution to MetLife. 

The District Attorney's office says she billed $15,600 for procedures she never performed, and then that she falsified paperwork in order to mislead investigators.

But Baker, in a cell-phone interview, says the overcharged bills only totaled $8,500, and said she was pressured into the plea after an assistant district attorney dogged her relentlessly and rejected any efforts to come to a settlement.

Said Baker, "This whole thing has been a disaster," adding, "I have to talk because I've spent over $125,000 defending myself and it's ridiculous."

Though she has to pay substantial restitution, $15,000 of her own money, she says,  Baker claims the erroneous billing claims made from her 1 Bryant Cir., White Plains offices were substantially lower.

"Half of it was cleanings, and half was fillings, so essentially it was over $4,000 worth of fillings," she said.

"The ADA never stopped prosecuting me, [he] prosecuted me overzealously. This whole thing should have been settled months ago," she said.

After going through three lawyers who tried on her behalf to buck the charges or settle, she said she finally plead guilty after she was threatened with increased jail time if it went to trial or as retribution if she appealed the charges against her. Calls to the District Attorney's press office were not returned at the time of this story's publication.

"He's ruined me, ruined my life, and ruined the lives of my family. It's cost me everything I've worked on for 25 years. He never proved anything in court," she said.

The radio station's web story reported that Baker "entered the guilty plea to grand larceny and insurance fraud charges a day before the start of her trial" but Baker claims she was never informed the case was even going to trial.

"I wasn't prepared for trial," she said.

She was sentenced with five years' probation and will serve 24 weekends in jail, according to the reports.

Scarsale Patch will keep you posted on this story as it unfolds.