Friday, May 21, 2010
CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati man has shelled out more than $2,000 to help keep a woman out of prison after he read about her plight.
Gene Ellington is a business owner and former social worker who was moved by the story of 61-year-old Dorothy Rembert. Last week, another man gave her $1,000.
Rembert was applying recently for Social Security benefits when government employees found she had an outstanding probation violation from a 1981 welfare-theft conviction.
She had been placed on five years’ probation and ordered to repay $3,700. She paid $695 and says she erroneously believed her then-husband, who is deceased, paid the rest.
Rembert was in tears Thursday at the Hamilton County courthouse as she hugged Ellington.
A judge will dismiss the case once the checks clear.