Utica couple arrested in forged medical-record scheme

Gregory Jones is charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. Both are felonies.

Brooks Jones is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a felony.

The office of New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott announced the arrests Thursday.

“By obtaining and using fraudulent medical records, this couple violated the public trust inherent to the position Mr. Jones has held with the State of New York,” Leahy Scott said in a news release. “I will pursue any public employee who uses falsified documents to defraud the government.”

Gregory Jones was arraigned on the charges and released pending further court action in Utica City Court. Brooks Jones was arraigned and also released pending further court action in New Hartford Town Court on Jan. 2, 2018.

Case background

Leahy Scott’s office conducted an investigation that found Gregory Jones, who works at the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center in Utica, filed a standard medical-certification form.

The form serves as a doctor’s note that an individual “did in fact” have a medical reason to take the time off in late September, justifying time off from work.

That form, however, came from the doctor’s office in which Brooks Jones works, and the physician whose signature was on the form indicated he had never treated Gregory Jones and that the signature on the form “was not his own,” according to the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Photo provided by New York State Police