On July 8 2025, Detectives with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, received a Fraud Prevention Investigation referral regarding DEBRA KAY NORRING [DOB REDACTED] (Defendant). The referral indicated that Defendant's husband was residing with Defendant at her address 506 Cimarron, Lake Elmo, Washington County, Minnesota, and was employed. Defendant's husband's quarterly earnings were $11,543.84 which would have made Defendant ineligible for medical assistance if they resided together. Detectives reviewed a combined Six Month Report from October 1, 2019, and Health Care Programs Renewal from July 2, 2025, during which time Defendant filed out applications for Medical assistance.
In both applications on those dates, Defendant did not mark that anyone else was living in her household. In those applications she also did not disclose any income that her husband was making. Defendant's husband separately applied for social services and listed his sister's address in Cambridge, Minnesota. In a February 2018 application, Defendant indicated her husband had moved out and would not return. Search warrants were executed on ATandT, Defendant's husband's cell provider. They showed that during a two year period of Defendant receiving Medical Assistance, her husband's phone regular pinged off the cell tower nearest 506 Cimarron and that this was the most used cell tower for husband's phone.
The second and third most used towers are within 2 miles of the husband's place of work, Elliot Auto Supply,. This shows a pattern of the husband traveling from the 506 Cimarron Address to work and then back home again after work. Furthermore a search of the Department of Employment and Economic Development shows that the husband listed the 506 Cimarron address as his home address when working for Elliot Auto Supply. Officers also spoke with the property manager from the Cimarron property where Defendant resides.
The property manager indicated that Defendant is the only listed resident, but that the property manager had confronted both Defendant and Defendant's husband about the fact he is not allowed to live there. As the husband continued to reside in the home, Defendant was never eligible for Medical Assistance resulting in years of overpayment. Since April 2023 Defendant has received $22,863.89 in medical assistance payouts.
