Woman gets jail time for Katrina-related fraud

STONE COUNTY — A Mississippi woman who made false claims for Hurricane Katrina disaster payments has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Brandy Meadows, of Stone County, also was ordered last Thursday to help make $33,000 in restitution to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden ordered her to forfeit $26,200.

Meadows pleaded guilty in October to one count of theft of public money. Prosecutors said she falsely claimed she was living in a mobile home in Wiggins when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.

The Sun Herald reported that prosecutors dropped three mail fraud charges and another charge of making a fraudulent claim. Prosecutors said she received three checks from FEMA between September 2005 and July 2006.

Meadows’ bond was revoked in October when she and another woman were arrested in Greene County on charges of aiding and abetting in the escape of two jail inmates. Authorities said the two prisoners escaped through an air duct and later were found with the women in apartments in Leakesville.

Sunshine Meadows – identified as a relative to Brandy Meadows by marriage – is jailed awaiting sentencing on a FEMA-related charge. She pleaded guilty to a theft charge involving the same address in Wiggins

Her bond was revoked in October after court officials accused her of smoking marijuana and providing fake contact and employment information.