Well now, gather ‘round and let me spin you a yarn that smells more of brimstone than frankincense—a cautionary tale from the great American desert where salvation was for sale, and the Devil took debit.
It appears one Pastor Regina Brice, a woman of the cloth—or at least a woman frequently seen near cloth—was sentenced not to prison but to probation for her role in a healthcare fraud scheme that would make even the slickest riverboat gambler tip his hat. Her transgression? Pilferin’ over a million dollars meant for the impoverished through Nevada Medicaid. For her efforts, she got four years of supervised liberty and a bill for $1.1 million in restitution—a debt, I daresay, she’ll be paying until the Rapture or the next federal shutdown, whichever comes first.
You may think defrauding the sick and impoverished would guarantee a stay in the Graybar Hotel, but nope. You see, Ms. Brice’s attorney, a fella named Gary Reeves, painted her not as a criminal mastermind but a minor accomplice, groomed like a show pony and trotted out by the real schemers.
Mr. Reeves spun a tale thick with remorse, religious fervor, and bodily ailments—reminding Judge Boulware that Ms. Brice was very spiritual and suffered from some accident-related ailments to boot. The good judge obliged, and she walked without a shackle or scolding.
Her husband, Joe Brice, was not so fortunate. For his participation in this gospel-tinged grift, he got ten months in prison and a tidy restitution of $392,000. He also pleaded guilty to moving money of dubious origin and, much like his wife, had conveniently forgotten to mention his rather storied criminal past when applying to be a Medicaid provider.
His resume omitted burglary, drug charges, and a concealed weapon offense—minor hiccups, no doubt, on the road to sainthood. As the layers of the holy onion got peeled back, more names appeared—Gregory and Carol Kirby, once united in wedlock, now bound only by mutual misdeeds.
Gregory, who now fancies himself “Apostle Kirby,” a title easier to earn than a bus pass–confessed to raking in fraudulently claimed Medicaid funds and converting them into real estate from Decatur to Laughlin. He and Carol walked free from prison but got ordered to cough up nearly $373,000 in restitution.
But wait, there’s more!
For Carol Kirby, one scheme wasn’t enough. Arizona’s got her in their sights too, charging her with 20 felonies for bilking another health care program in a new enterprise—”A Better You Wellness Center,” which, based on the indictment, made its patients poorer and the operators richer.
The cast of this ministerial melodrama includes at least 15 players, some of them still unidentified, and a total estimated fraud of $30 million. That’s thirty million taxpayer dollars for Nevada’s needy, rerouted into trucks, properties, and sanctimonious sermons.
Now, you may ask, where’s the moral in this mess? Well, friend, it’s buried under the parking lot of a church with no congregation and six LLCs.
The Old Blog in the Desert 