WENATCHEE — A woman accused of defrauding the state welfare system — at the same time she was neglecting and abusing the elderly couple she cared for — won a six-month jail sentence after a guilty plea Wednesday.

Lena May Grove, 52, pleaded guilty to false verification for public assistance, admitting that she untruthfully filled out an application for aid to the state Department of Social and Health Services. Charges of first-degree theft by welfare fraud and second-degree perjury were dropped.

Grove was charged with the fraud in December, after serving nine months in prison for assaulting the aged couple she worked for and who had adopted her as their daughter. She filed an application for welfare in 2010 without disclosing the $3,600 monthly salary she drew from her adoptive parents to pay for their care.

She was arrested in April 2011 after sheriff’s deputies found Grove’s disabled parents, an 82-year-old woman and her 77-year-old husband, in unsanitary conditions in Grove’s north Wenatchee home. The woman had an injured wrist and the man had suffered facial bruises, broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung.

Both accused Grove of striking or otherwise physically abusing them, and said Grove refused to allow them access to a phone. She entered Alford pleas in May 2011 to two second-degree assault charges and one third-degree assault charge against her parents.

Grove’s public defense attorney, Robert Gower, told visiting Judge Chris Culp in Chelan County Superior Court that Grove suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which probably contributed to the abuse and fraud. She also underwent surgeries for breast cancer during the same period, and three of her siblings died.

“Are things better now for you?” asked Culp, an Okanogan County judge filling in for Chelan County Judge Lesley Allan.

“Barely,” Grove told him.

Grove could have been sentenced to nearly two years in jail had the higher charges not been dropped. She must report for jail March 22. After serving her term, she’ll be forced to pay back $5,400 she received in fraudulent DSHS payments.

Jefferson Robbins: 664-7123

robbins@wenatcheeworld.com