Opinion ID: 1707656
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The evidence was legally sufficient.

Text: Ibarra's second contention is that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support her conviction for wrongfully obtaining AFDC benefits in violation of Minn.Stat. § 256.98 (1982). To convict her the state was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following facts: (1) She obtained assistance; (2) She was not entitled to this assistance at all, or in the amount she was seeking, and that she knew this; (3) She made a false representation and intended thereby to obtain assistance; (4) The value of the excess assistance was more than $2,500. CRIMJIG 24:14 (1977). On appeal, Ibarra raises no challenge to the state's assertion that she received $5,765 in AFDC benefits from February 1980 to July 1981. She maintains, however, that the state did not produce sufficient evidence to prove that she intentionally misrepresented the truth of her living arrangements or that she did so for the purpose of obtaining assistance to which she knew she was not entitled. The standard for reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a criminal conviction is well established. Our examination is limited to ascertaining whether the trier of fact giving due regard to the presumption of innocence and to the state's burden of proving the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, could reasonably have found the defendant guilty of the offense charged. State v. Turnipseed, 297 N.W.2d 308, 313 (Minn. 1980), quoting State v. Merrill, 274 N.W.2d 99, 111 (Minn.1978). In making this determination we evaluate the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and assume the prosecution witnesses were believed and the defense witnesses disbelieved. State v. Turnipseed, supra, at 313. This standard remains the same regardless of whether a court or jury heard the evidence. State v. Mytych, 292 Minn. 248, 194 N.W.2d 276 (1972). Upon viewing the evidence we are convinced it was sufficient to support the district court's factual findings. Five of Ibarra's neighbors at the K & K Apartments testified they saw Jesus around the building on a daily or near daily basis. Several of these witnesses stated they observed Jesus' pick-up truck parked in the building lot before and after work, heard his voice or saw him in Ibarra's apartment, and saw Ibarra hanging out men's clothes to dry. A legitimate inference to be drawn from these and similar observations is that Jesus was living with Ibarra and their daughter. State v. Merrill, 274 N.W.2d 99 (Minn.1978); State v. Whelan, 291 Minn. 83, 85, 189 N.W.2d 170, 172 (1971); State v. Norgaard, 272 Minn. 48, 52, 136 N.W.2d 628, 631 (1965). This conclusion is buttressed by the testimony of two of Ibarra's neighbors who told of separate conversations in which Ibarra and Jesus indicated Jesus was living at the K & K Apartments. Upon the assumption that the district court credited this testimony and rejected Ibarra's rebuttal testimony, we are satisfied that it reasonably could have found the state met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra's oral and written statements to the welfare department concerning the limited time Jesus spent with her and their daughter misrepresented the fact that he was living with them. State v. Merrill, supra, at 111. We further find, on the basis of Ibarra's admission at trial that she knew she would not have been entitled to AFDC Absent Parent Benefits if she had informed the department that Jesus was living with her, that the district court reasonably concluded Ibarra made the representations in order to receive assistance for which she knew she was ineligible. State v. Everson, 286 Minn. 246, 248, 175 N.W.2d 503, 505 (1970). Despite her own admission and similar testimony by her caseworkers that she would not have received benefits had she informed them that Jesus was living with her, Ibarra maintains that the state failed to prove that she was not entitled to benefits under the AFDC Absent Parent Program and that she wrongfully received benefits in violation of section 256.98. AFDC benefits were provided Ibarra because the information she furnished the agency depicted her daughter as a child who was deprived of parental support or care by reason of . . . [Jesus'] continued absence from the home. Minn.Stat. § 256.12, subd. 14 (1982). Ibarra contends that in order to demonstrate that she was ineligible for the benefits she received the state must prove not only Jesus' physical presence in the home but also that he supported and cared for their daughter. She asserts that because the state failed to prove that Jesus supported the child, her conviction must be reversed. Under various federal and state statutes and regulations the phrase continued absence from home is said to encompass situations in which a parent is physically absent from the home and the nature of the absence is such that the child is deprived of the absent parent's support or care. 45 C.F.R. § 233.90(c)(1)(iii). When, as in this case, the state establishes that the parent who has been represented as absent is, in fact, living in the home and, hence, that there is no physical absence, it is both absurd and unnecessary to require proof that the parent was providing support or care. To do so would be to place an impossible burden on the state which would in all likelihood result in serious intrusion into the privacy of AFDC recipients. Moreover, if the parent resides in the home, the child is not deprived of support or care by reason of the parent's absence. The gravamen of prosecution for welfare theft is that assistance was wrongfully obtained through false representations or concealment of material facts. We hold that once the state proves the putatively absent parent resided or was regularly present in the home, it is not required to delve into the parent's relationship with the child to show that there was no deprivation of parental guidance. We are not unmindful of the determination in Freeborn County Welfare Board v. Hernandez, 299 Minn. 195, 217 N.W.2d 210 (1974), that there was substantial evidence to support the finding that the seven children of Patrick Hernandez were deprived of parental support and care in spite of the father's presence in the home of the children's custodian. The paternal grandmother, rather than either parent, was given custody of her son's children pursuant to a divorce decree which set the father's legal obligation for support of the seven children at $35 per week. Although the father lived in the same household as the children, his mother could have turned him out at any time; there was no evidence that he provided any support or care beyond the meager amount required by court order; and their mother did not reside in the same household. It is, however, one thing to find eligibility even though one non-custodial parent lives in the same household as his children when the children are needy and the other parent is unquestionably absent. It is quite something else to say, as appellant urges, that misrepresentation with respect to the absence of a parent  a prerequisite for eligibility under the Absent Parent Program  constitutes a violation of section 256.98 only if it can also be proved that the supposedly absent parent supported the child  i.e., that the child simply was not a needy child. We decline to so construe the statute. We also reject Ibarra's alternative argument that her conviction should be reversed because the state did not prove either that she received assistance for which she was entirely ineligible or that she received an amount greater than she deserved. Referring to her offer of proof concerning eligibility for AFDC benefits under the Unemployed Parent Program, which provides benefits when a resident unemployed parent satisfies the program requirements, Ibarra contends that she may have been eligible for greater benefits under the Unemployed Parent Program had she disclosed that Jesus was living with her than she obtained by representing Jesus as an absent parent. To put it another way, Ibarra would have us interpret section 256.98 to require the state to prove not only that the defendant was ineligible for benefits through the assistance program under which the defendant applied but also that had the agency been informed of all relevant facts it would have determined that the defendant was not entitled to benefits under any program. In People v. Carlson, 76 Cal. App.3d 112, 142 Cal.Rptr. 638 (1978), the California Court of Appeals was faced with a similar contention that a recipient's eligibility for benefits under its Unemployed Father Program was a defense to a charge of wrongful receipt of benefits under the Absent Father Deprivation Program. The Carlson court declined to recognize such a defense: Appellant's interpretation of the statute seems unreasonable to us and cannot be what the Legislature intended. It would or could encourage welfare recipients who may or may not be eligible on a different basis to make their own unilateral determinations of their own eligibility, excluding the welfare department from the process. If this should occur it would wreak havoc with the administration of the AFDC program. It overlooks the obvious fact that if a recipient knows she is no longer eligible on the original basis on which she is obtaining aid (absent father) but believes in good faith she is eligible on another basis (unemployment of the father) she certainly would seek aid on the alternative basis rather than risk a perjury conviction for continuing to file false declarations. Id., 142 Cal.Rptr. 641. [5] Similarly, we find that the legislature could not have intended Ibarra's proposed construction. The better interpretation of section 256.98 is that it only demands that the state prove noneligibility under the program through which the defendant obtained assistance. We are in part led to this conclusion by the statutory reference to  material  facts, Minn.Stat. § 256.98 (1982), which affirmatively limits the criminal inquiry to proof and consideration of only those misrepresented or concealed facts which originally misled the agency into granting assistance. [6] Ibarra's final challenge is directed toward the amount of her court ordered restitution. She argues that the court failed to credit her for the period when Jesus was in school and not living with her. The district court determined that in August and September of 1980 Jesus was attending technical school and living in Jackson, Minnesota. We agree with Ibarra that this finding is contrary to a determination that she misrepresented his absence during this period. While it does not alter the appropriateness of the district court's ruling that Ibarra wrongfully received assistance in excess of the $2,500 threshold of Minn.Stat. § 609.52, subd. 3(1) (1982), we hold that the amount of her owed restitution is reduced to reflect the $688 in assistance the state failed to prove that she wrongfully received in those two months. Affirmed as modified.