DALLAS
A woman who is accused of abuse of corpse plead guilty this year to food stamp fraud and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison, according to authorities.
U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn also ordered Rachel Hardy, 36, to pay $76,494 in restitution, according to authorities.
Judge Lynn ordered that the Mansfield, Texas woman to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on August 4.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Stamp Program is known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP and theTexas Health and Human Services Commission administers SNAP in Texas.
The investigation began in 2012 when the Southwest Region USDA, Office of the Inspector General, received a referral about a person who was receiving SNAP benefits who had failed to disclose a change in household composition and income from the ownership of two businesses.
That individual was later identified as Hardy.
The investigation revealed that Hardy and her husband, who is the father of her youngest child, were married on February 14, 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On April 8, 2010, Hardy submitted a SNAP benefits application, certifying she was a “single-parent-mother,” with no income, living in a household that consisted only of her children.
Hardy’s application was approved, and she began receiving SNAP benefits.
On December 1, 2010, Hardy registered with Tarrant County as the owner operator of a tax refund and estate planning business called “Mighty Dollar Tax,” in Arlington, Texas.
From April 8, 2010, through June 5, 2011, Hardy stated to food stamp officials that she had no income and claiming to live alone with her children.
On February 21, 2011, Hardy purchased a 2006 H2 Hummer for $26,000 and a 2008 Mercedes Benz CL S500 sedan for $41,700. She paid for each with a cashier’s check. At the time she purchased these vehicles, Hardy reported to food stamp officials that she was an unemployed, single-parent-mother living alone at home with her children.
An April 19, 2011, Hardy registered with Tarrant County as the owner operator of the Johnson Family Mortuary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Again, on June 14, 2011, Hardy reported to food stamp workers that she was an unemployed single-parent-mother living alone at home with her children.
That same day, Hardy went to the Dallas County’s food stamp office where she completed and submitted an Assistance Form. In doing so, she certified she was a “single-parent-mother” with no income living in a household that consisted only of her children, according to officials.
On February 11, 2012, Hardy purchased a 2008 Land Rover Range Rover from Park Place Motors with a $53,000 cashier’s check.
A few days later, on February 22, 2012, Hardy again certified to food stamp workers that she was an unemployed single-parent-mother living at home with her children.
Hardy admitted to illegally receiving food stamps, officials said.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Hardy-Johnson and her husband, Dondre Johnson, 40, were arrested in July, a month after officials with the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office recovered decaying bodies from the mortuary
A Fort Worth homicide detective wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit that Johnson and Hardy-Johnson treated seven corpses “in a seriously offensive manner,” the newspaper reported.
The former owners have also been charged with failing to provide funeral services for several families last year after accepting payment for performing those services, the newspaper stated.
If convicted of the theft charges, the husband and wife each face a maximum of two years in prison, the Fort Worth Star reported.
