Welfare cheat
earns prison timeThe ex-Californian got
caught because he was using
the name of a wanted felon
A former California man admitted he came to Hawaii to commit welfare fraud because the state does not have safeguards, such as fingerprinting recipients.
Darrell Tenette, 48, was sentenced Tuesday to seven months in jail and five years' probation for using a dead man's Social Security number to obtain about $9,000 in welfare benefits here between 2000 and 2002.
Tenette, who has no permanent address but has lived at the Institute for Human Services, pleaded no contest in March to two counts of second-degree theft and one count of second-degree identity theft.
He was one of 225 welfare recipients whose benefits were terminated last fall after the state began identifying wanted or suspected felons who were receiving public assistance in the state.
Tenette told a probation officer prior to sentencing that California welfare offices have fingerprint machines and Hawaii does not fingerprint welfare recipients, so he came to Hawaii, said deputy attorney general Rick Damerville outside the courtroom.
Last legislative session in California, welfare activists and opponents of the fingerprinting program, which began in May 2000, argued against the state spending $10 million annually, saying there was no proof it was saving the state money. California began requiring welfare recipients to provide fingerprints to eliminate double-dipping or applying for benefits in more than one county.
"If Mr. Tenette admitted his conduct was because of what's being done in California, imagine the would-be thieves discouraged by the mere fact that they're taking fingerprints," Damerville said.
Tenette's case shows that fingerprinting does deter individuals from fraudulently obtaining welfare benefits, Damerville said.
Tenette initially used the name of Steven Levrets when he applied for public assistance on the Big Island because he was receiving welfare in California, Damerville said.
Levrets was a convicted felon wanted for violating parole in Oregon. He died in 1999, unbeknownst to his parole officer, who did not know why Levrets suddenly stopped seeing him -- so a warrant was issued for his arrest, Damerville said.
That felony charge triggered the alert about Levrets, and Tenette was caught while reapplying for benefits on Oahu last December.
Tenette admitted to using Levrets' identity to obtain benefits here. Someone had personal information on Levrets, and Tenette somehow got a hold of it, said his public defender, Reuel Toyama, in the courtroom. Tenette never met or knew Levrets.
Of the more than $9,000 in assistance Tenette received, $5,000 was for medical benefits that he would have qualified for anyway since he had qualified for them before, Toyama said.
But Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto said Tenette's conduct was "highly calculated, required a lot of thought and was maintained over a period of time."