Sacto 9-1-1: Former benefits clerks pleads no contest in identity theft case

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August 3, 2011

Former benefits clerks pleads no contest in identity theft case

A former benefits clerk with the United Health Workers/SEIU today pleaded no contest to multiple felony counts of identity theft involving the personal information for more than 29,000 Kaiser Permanente employees.

Mia Garza, 31, also admitted to an aggravated white collar crime enhancement, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

At the time she committed these crimes, Garza was out on bail for identity theft charges in both Contra Costa and Sacramento counties.

Garza worked as a benefits clerk for United Health Workers/SEIU in Oakland. In July 2007, she unlawfully accessed an electronic file containing names, addresses and personal identifying information for more than 29,000 Kaiser Permanente employees. With the stolen personnel data, she ran background checks and credit reports to obtain additional personal information and locate the victims' commercial credit accounts. Investigators located more than 400 actual victims of identity theft in 14 counties that are attributable to Garza, according to the news release.

The case led to an investigation by the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office and Kaiser Permanente investigators that lasted nearly two years. Charges were filed against Garza in numerous counties throughout California, but officials said resolution in the Sacramento case takes jurisdiction over cases in the other counties.

Garza's most notable arrest occurred in Sacramento in 2009. When arrested, she was wearing a pre-operative surgical gown and was about to undergo a $12,000 liposuction procedure that she had arranged while posing as the victim and using the victim's credit car information, officials said.

Garza is to be sentenced Sept. 22 in Sacramento County Superior Court by Judge Gary E. Ransom.

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Q: What happened with the case regarding Marc McCormick? He was accused of videotaping a woman in her home and was arrested. He lives in my neighborhood and I see him all the time. Were charges dropped?

A: According to Sacramento Superior Court online records, misdemeanor charges have been filed against Mark William McCormick, alleging that he used a camcorder or other instrument to view an individual in a place where there was an expectation of privacy, trespassing and peeping.

His next court date is June 4.

According to Sacramento police logs, McCormick, 40, was arrested March 8 after the victim reported that a friend had entered her home without her knowledge to secretly videotape her.

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