Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170626
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Short
The U.S. Attorney's office said it is the largest such judgment ever.
Sheila Carroll's four years at Georgetown Medical School were paid for by the U.S. government under the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program. In return for her $94,000 education, Carroll agreed to practice in a poor pocket of America for four years.
When she graduated, she was assigned to an Indian reservation. But she never fulfilled her pledge, and later joined a practice in Manassas, where she is making $100,000 a year. Then she filed for bankruptcy, asking to be excused from paying the government.
A judge in federal bankruptcy court in Alexandria this week refused that request and set her fine.
Carroll is one of more than 500 former medical students who have defaulted on loans made through the program since it began in 1972.
U.S. Attorney Henry Hudson, whose office took action against Carroll, said federal authorities gave her several opportunities to pay her debt or serve where she was assigned. She turned them down repeatedly.
Federal officials said Carroll asked that her debt to the government be forgiven because a recruiter in the scholarship program led her to believe she could perform her service in Washington or New York City, not in a rural area where she ultimately was assigned.
by CNB