A Worcester-based attorney has been indicted for fraudulently collecting some $120,000 in workers compensation survivor benefits that he received after the death of his first wife.
Herman Bayless of Brookfield has been charged with Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud and Larceny over $250. Bayless maintains his own law practice that includes, among other areas, workers’ compensation law.
Bayless began collecting workers’ compensation benefits after his first wife died in 2001. She had collected compensation benefits herself after being injured on the job as a corrections officer. Following her death Bayless was entitled to collect her benefits as her surviving spouse until he remarried.
Investigators discovered in early 2007 that Bayless had remarried in July 2004, but had allegedly failed to notify the DOC of his change in status, in order to continue collecting the survivor benefits. Authorities allege that Bayless collected nearly $120,000 in benefits during that period, which he was no longer entitled to receive.
A Suffolk County Grand Jury returned indictments against Bayless yesterday. He is scheduled for arraignment on June 8, 2009, in Suffolk Superior Court.
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