In Westmoreland County Plea Court yesterday, a Bolivar man pleaded guilty to claiming he was working as a personal home health care assistant, when in fact he was employed at the Specialty Tires of America plant in Indiana.
61-year-old Clark Michael Baird, a former police chief who is currently listed as the Borough Council president in Bolivar, pleaded guilty to making a false or fraudulent medical assistance claim, with a second charge for the same offense and a charge of theft by deception dismissed. Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio sentenced Baird to a year of probation and $8,651.38 restitution to the state of Pennsylvania.
Baird was paid for 596 hours of work between 2015 and 2018, but he continued to bill the state for about a month after he was replaced in the caregiver job. The state Attorney General’s prosecuted the case and examined the payroll records of Specialty Tires to determine that Baird had made the false claim.
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