Mercy Chieza’s students and fellow faculty knew nothing of the clinical psychologist and college professor’s legal troubles until the news broke last week.

Chieza, 55, pleaded guilty in an Austin federal courtroom in December to charges of money laundering and health care fraud by submitting false claims from her Waco practice.

The Zimbabwe native admitted to scamming Medicaid out of $664,215 between at least January 1999 to October 2007.

She was sentenced Thursday.

Tarleton State University spokeswoman Liza Benedict said Monday that Chieza’s fellow faculty in the clinical psychology department at McLennan Community College heard of Chieza’s crimes in the newspaper.

Tarleton offers four-year degrees through MCC’s University Center, where Chieza worked as a professor for the fall semester.

A background check was conducted on Chieza before she was hired at the school and turned up clean, Benedict said.

Chieza resigned from her position at the school last week.

AshleyDawn Sheppard, a 26-year-old Waco graduate student in psychology, said she and her classmates also first learned of Chieza’s troubles in Friday’s Tribune-Herald .

“I was beyond surprised. I was devastated,” Sheppard said. “She was a brilliant woman and very accomplished, considering English was her second language. She had built a successful practice.

“In a way, she was a professional role model. I confided in her. . . There was never any indication that she was anything but an upstanding citizen.”

According to federal court documents, from at least January 1999 to October 2007, Chieza admitted to submitting multiple fraudulent billings, filing claims for services performed by someone else and filing claims for services not performed at all.

The documents state she billed for services that totaled more than 24 hours in a day, and for services submitted to the health care benefit program for reimbursement while she was away from her practice.

The documents said she also double-billed for services.

In eight years, Chieza submitted claims to Medicaid for 25 or more hours per day on at least 16 separate days, and for 16 or more hours a day on at least 152 days, documents state.

‘Phenomenal instructor’

Sheppard hailed Chieza as a “phenomenal instructor.”

“She raised the standard at the Waco campus and expected students to be nothing but high-caliber,” she said. “She refused to allow students to submit mediocre work or take shortcuts.”

She said she and her classmates feel sad and betrayed.

“In the psychology field, trust and integrity are the foundation of psychological services,” Sheppard said. “It’s dumbfounding to me that she was training people how to be ethical practitioners while she was consciously breaking the law.”

equinn@wacotrib.com

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