Nab 2 Workers For 'Doctoring' Absence Notes

An epidemic of allegedly bogus sick notes led to the arrests of two city employees last week on forgery and larceny charges.

If convicted, each faces up to seven years in prison, noted city Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

Pilfered Rx Pads?

Michael Bellach, a 15-year veteran of the Department of Environmental Protection who is a Sewage Treatment Worker, was accused of submitting 22 fraudulent doctors' notes written on pads from a pediatrics group and a hospital. He was not treated by either facility, according to the criminal complaint against him, and the handwriting on all the notes was similar.

The allegedly forged notes covered absences between July 1999 and September 2003.

Diane Jones, a Secretary with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, was charged with submitting eight forged doctors' notes to cover 14 absences from her job between May 2005 and August 2006. She was improperly paid $687 to cover lost wages for nearly seven of those days, according to Ms. Hearn. She was accused of forging a doctor's signature on six notes and falsifying two notes from another - in one instance, altering the date on the note.