A former City of Palo Alto firefighter could face four years in prison for scamming on her worker's compensation claim, according to a release by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office.

Tanya August, 39, pled no contest last week to one count of making a false or fraudulent material statement regarding her employment for the purpose of obtaining compensation, according to the release.

August, a San Jose resident, was employed as a firefighter for the City of Palo Alto from September 1996 to December 2007. In December 2006, she alleged an injury to her lower back as she was lifting a patient onto a gurney.

August was diagnosed with a lumbar strain and her workers' compensation claim was accepted. She received her full salary from December 2006 to December 2007.

The former treasurer of the Palo Alto Professional Firefighters, August told her employer she was physically unable to perform even light-duty work.

But she accepted employment doing clerical work and bookkeeping at a T-shirt shop in San Jose owned by another City of Palo Alto firefighter. In her deposition, she had denied any employment, according to the district attorney's office.

"The DA's office did the investigation after the insurance adjuster for the City of Palo Alto brought it to our attention. We filed a complaint in January 2008," said Erin West, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case. August was arrested on Jan. 16, 2008, according to a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

August was ordered by a judge to pay $20,000 in restitution to the city. She is scheduled to be in court April 27 and could face a maximum sentence of four years in prison, according to the release.

She currently is listed as the secretary-treasurer of the Fire Fighter Cancer Foundation, a national nonprofit advocacy and educational organization working to extinguish firefighter cancer. Her other nonprofit work includes the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America, according to the Cancer Foundation's website.

"As much as I would like to, especially to have my side of the story in there, I have been told to refer anyone who's asking for comments to my attorney," August said by e-mail on Monday.

Her attorney did not return phone calls
from the Weekly.