Officer charged with disability fraud after her Ice Bucket Challenge video is found
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Last summer, everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research — including one California police officer now charged with disability fraud.
Prosecutors say that a video posted online in July showed Pasadena police officer Jaime Robison, on disability for a lower back injury, lifting up a five-gallon bucket filled with ice water and pouring it over the head of another officer. Robison has been charged with four counts of insurance fraud, and prosecutors say that because she allegedly inflated her injuries, she cost the department up to $117,000, the Los Angeles Times reports. Prosecutors also think she exaggerated an injury in 2012 so she could collect over a year's worth of disability pay.
Robison pleaded not guilty on Friday. If she is convicted of all four charges, she could face up to six years and four months in county jail.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
