$513 Elmbrook Memorial Medical Bill Leads to Identity Theft Charge

When a woman learned she owed $513 for medical bills at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital, it didn’t take too long to discover she wasn’t the patient.

When the woman received the bill, she went to the Brookfield Police Department because the patient on file was morbidly obese and a smoker. The woman was slim and not a smoker, according to a criminal complaint filed March 22 in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

The investigation revealed the woman’s roommate, Jennifer C. Martinez, may have used the woman’s identity to receive narcotic drugs for back and side pain between December 2008 and February 2009, according to the criminal complaint.

Martinez, 36, of Milwaukee, is charged with identity theft. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

When Martinez was confronted, the complaint states, she claimed her roommate worked two jobs and went to school and didn’t have time to receive medical treatment for foot pain and an infection. Martinez told police her roommate begged her to use her identity to obtain the prescriptions to treat her foot.

However, the woman told police Martinez’s story was not true and she never gave Martinez permission to use her identity.