A woman convicted in 1983 of perpetrating a $377,000 welfare fraud, the largest in U.S. history, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a far smaller welfare scam involving $450.
Former "Welfare Queen" Dorothy Woods, 47, was then placed on five years' probation by Superior Court Judge Lillian Stevens.The judge also sentenced her to a year in the county jail, but because Woods had already served that much time in custody following her 1987 arrest in the smaller scam, she was allowed to remain free.
Woods in June 1983 was sentenced to eight years in state prison for defrauding the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services out of $377,000 from 1974 to 1980.