Charleston, VA — Pamela Taylor, the 57-year old white woman who made a racist comment about former first lady Michelle Obama on Facebook two years ago, is now going to prison for embezzling more than $18,000 in FEMA disaster benefits.Taylor, the former Clay County development director, has recently been sentenced to 10 months in federal prison and to pay $10,000 fine. After serving her sentence in jail, she also has to undergo home confinement for the first 2 months and supervised release for 3 years.
In 2016, Taylor also made national headlines after comparing then-first lady Michelle Obama to an ape. In a Facebook post after Trump’s election, she said, “It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels.”
She was then suspended from her position as Clay County development director but returned to work about a month after.
In the FEMA embezzlement case, Taylor reportedly claimed her primary residence was damaged by the flooding in West Virginia that damaged other homes and buildings and killed at least 23 people in June 2016. She also said that she stayed in a rental unit after that.
However, it turned out that her home was not damaged and that she was still living there, not in any rental unit as she have initially claimed to receive more than $18,000 in FEMA disaster benefits.
“The flood was a natural disaster. Stealing from FEMA is a man-made disaster,” U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said in a news release. “The floods of June 2016 were historic and devastating to thousands of West Virginians. Lives were lost. Too many of our brothers and sisters lost everything. FEMA dollars are critical but limited. Stealing critical FEMA dollars is a crime — literally and figuratively. Taylor’s fraud scheme diverted disaster benefits from our most desperate and vulnerable, those most in need of help.”
I Constantly Used My Pocket Money to Buy Lunch for a Difficult Boy in My 3rd-Grade Class – The Package He Sent Me 30 Years Later Was Something I Never Expected in a Million Years
My husband’s medical crisis had already pushed me to the edge. Then I found something on my porch that dragged me straight back to third grade. By the time I opened it, I knew my life was about to change.
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I’m 39, and three months ago I thought I was going to lose my husband.
Mark and I had a quiet life. Then one Tuesday, he dropped his mug in the kitchen and grabbed the counter.
I said, “Mark?”
He tried to answer, but nothing came out right. His face had gone gray.
That sounded hopeful for about two seconds.
At the hospital, everything became fluorescent lights and people talking too fast. A cardiologist told me Mark had a serious structural problem in his heart. Not a simple blockage. Something rare. Something they could stabilize for now, but not fix without a specialized surgery.
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I asked, “So when do you do it?”
“We’ve asked one of our cardiac reconstruction specialists to review his case.”
That sounded hopeful for about two seconds.
She slid a paper across the table.
Then a financial counselor came in.
Insurance would cover part of it. Not enough. The surgery, hospital stay, imaging, anesthesia, ICU time, rehab after, all of it together would leave us with a catastrophic balance.
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She slid a paper across the table.
I looked down.
$420,000.
I actually laughed.
I drove there that night, knowing what I was probably going to do.
Not because it was funny. Because the number was too big for my brain to accept on the first try.
“You cannot be serious.”
She said, softly, “I’m sorry.”
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I went back to Mark’s room and sat beside his bed while he slept under medication and monitors. I took his hand and said, “I will figure this out. I don’t care what I have to sell.”
And I meant it.
Then I noticed what it was wrapped in.
I drove there that night, knowing what I was probably going to do.
I sat in the car for a long time before I made myself get out.
That was when I saw the package.
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It was small. Brown paper. No return address.
Then I noticed what it was wrapped in.
