Judge Accused of Lying to Get Social Security for Daughter

SAN FRANCISCO —  An administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration has been charged with lying to get Social Security benefits for her daughter, prosecutors said Thursday.

Elizabeth Price, a hearing officer for the federal agency in San Rafael, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on one count of perjury and one count of making a false statement for use in determining Social Security benefits.

Price is accused of lying when she applied for benefits for her daughter in April 1995 and said she had not been divorced from the girl’s stepfather, Robert Moran, who died in February 1994.

But Price knew they had been divorced, a fact that would have affected her daughter’s eligibility for benefits, the indictment said. The couple married in August 1985.

She was initially awarded $7,164 in retroactive benefits for her daughter, and $803 a month in continuing benefits, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Matthew Jacobs, quoting court records.

But another Social Security Administration hearing officer later ruled that Price’s divorce, which she had denied under oath, made her daughter ineligible to receive benefits for the loss of Moran’s support, Jacobs said. A federal judge upheld that ruling in December and allowed the government to seek the return of the overpaid benefits.

Price also filed a written statement with Social Security saying that as far as she knew, she had not been divorced from Moran at the time of his death, prosecutors said.