Mom abuses her kids, fakes their diagnoses to get Medicaid money, MN cops say

A mother accused of abusing her children for more than five years exploited them to get Medicaid money, Minnesota authorities say.

The 34-year-old Crosslake woman, who in June was found guilty on 11 charges, was sentenced Aug. 7 to 468 months in prison, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a news release.

Ellison said the mother “physically, verbally and emotionally abused her three children,” who were 11, 9 and 8 when their mom was arrested in 2022.

“She abused her position of authority,” prosecuting attorney Dominika Kins said in court, according to the Brainerd Dispatch. “And she stripped them of an actual childhood.”

According to a criminal complaint, the mom received more than $35,000 from the state of Minnesota for medical care for her 9-year-old, who was being treated for dropping hemoglobin levels.

But an investigation revealed the numbers had deteriorated because his mom was withdrawing blood from him using a syringe and picc line, according to the court documents. She would then make the other two kids dump the blood in a toilet.

She also faked diagnoses for her other two children, including making her 11-year-old wear a cast for more than two years, authorities said.

“Another child stated that (their mom) would instruct the child to vomit at the doctor even though he didn’t need to, and to cough as if he had asthma, at which time asthma medication was prescribed,” the attorney general said.

The mother was accused of having violent outbursts against her children, according to investigators, who said she choked each of them when their rooms weren’t clean.

“When Defendant would do this to (the 8-year-old), she could barely breathe and felt like she was about to pass out,” authorities said. “(The child) said her head would start hurting, starts to race, she wouldn’t be able to walk right, her vision was blurry, her breathing was ‘not so good’ and she coughed a lot after.”

The children said their mom would often beat them with a spoon, charging cord or a belt, sometimes making them bleed, according to the court documents.

Investigators said she would withhold food from her children and made death threats.

“I was never safe,” the 11-year-old child told authorities, according to the court records.

The mother was found guilty in June of attempted murder, three counts of child torture, three counts of stalking and four counts of theft by false representation, the attorney general said.

He referred to her alleged actions as among the most “heinous and agonizing” crimes he has seen as the attorney general.

“The facts we proved in court are nothing short of horrifying,” Ellison said in June. “It strains the imagination and breaks my heart into pieces to think about the torture and anguish — physical, mental, and emotional — that (she) inflicted on her own children.”

Crosslake is about a 145-mile drive northwest from Minneapolis.