Former Baltimore officer, daughter plead guilty to JFS fraud

Trista Thurston | Lancaster Eagle Gazette

LANCASTER - Melissa Kilbarger still owes Job and Family Services just over $20,000.

Paying that back is part of her sentence, ordered Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to one count of theft, a fifth-degree felony, in the Fairfield County Common Pleas Court.

Kilbarger appeared before visiting Judge Michael Ward, a retired Athens County judge, due to her father's previous positions in the county, who was sentenced just after his daughter Tuesday.

Kilbarger, 35, was erroneously awarded $35,172 in food assistance benefits from 2012 to 2016 and $4,984 in Medicaid benefits in 2013 from Fairfield County Job and Family Services that she was ineligible to receive.

According to special prosecutor Kristina Oesterle, Kilbarger provided false information for where she was living and who was living in her household. Since the income of her now-fiancé went unreported, she received more benefits than she was eligible for.

Kilbarger has five children, and her attorney Brad Nicodemus said she did so "to put food on the table."

"She is not a victim in this. She will tell you she is not a victim in this," he added.

An additional charge, grand theft, a fourth-degree felony, was dismissed as part of the plea agreement. Kilbarger was sentenced five years of community control and 100 hours of community service. Kilbarger was also ordered to find and maintain employment.

She must pay $300 a month to make up the remaining $20,156 owed to JFS in a four-year time span. Kilbarger provided the state with a $5,000 check before her sentencing hearing and had previously paid $15,000, Oesterle said.

Both Kilbarger and her father appeared in court Tuesday. Larry Kilbarger, 67, provided Job and Family Services with a fraudulent written statement that his daughter was paying him $350 in rent when she was not living with him. He admitted that he knew the document was fraudulent but wanted to help his family, Oesterle said.

He pleaded guilty to an amended charge of falsification, a first-degree misdemeanor. He originally faced a third-degree felony tampering with records charge.

Larry was sentenced to one year of community control, 80 hours of community service and is prohibited from having a career in law enforcement, volunteer or paid.

Larry Kilbarger has an extensive law enforcement background and worked at the Baltimore Police Department on two separate occasions, as well as the Lancaster Police Department and Fairfield County adult probation.He resigned from the Baltimore Police Department before he was indicted in January.

More: Baltimore police officer resigns before indictment

Baltimore Police Chief Mike Tussey previously told the Eagle-Gazette he first learned Larry Kilbarger was being investigated during the winter of 2015 after a lieutenant told him. The lieutenant was at the county prosecutor's office filing unrelated charges during Kilbarger's initial meeting with investigators.

Tussey added Kilbarger believed his daughter was the primary target of the investigation and that he was on the periphery of the inquiry.

Oesterle said that JFS had no objection to the Kilbarger plea agreements, as their primary goal was recouping the lost funds.

tthurston@lancastereaglegazette.com

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Twitter: @tristathurston