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Maryland Woman Gets Prison For Workers Comp Fraud

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A Maryland woman has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for worker's compensation fraud devised during a 2006 stay at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Nevada Attorney General's office said Wednesday that Tamara Thompson-Johnson, 45, of Suitland, Md., will also have to pay $20,000 restitution.

Surveillance video shows Thompson-Johnson talking on her cell phone as a drunk hotel patron knocks over a large vase. She's seen helping other people clean up the debris and leaving the scene.

Prosecutors say she later said she was hit by the vase and checked herself into the hospital. She filed a successful workers' compensation claim with her employer, Travelers Insurance, saying the vase disabled her.

She pleaded guilty to one felony count of making false statements or representations to obtain benefits.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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