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A former New York City correction officer was sentenced this week to two years of probation and ordered to pay back more than $80,000 after falsely claiming she was on military duty and collecting paid leave from the city for more than a year.
Leah Mathieu, 35, of Freeport, Long Island, pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud after an investigation found that she forged military orders and other documents to convince the Department of Correction that she remained on active duty with the New York Naval Militia.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald sentenced Mathieu on Tuesday to 100 hours of community service on top of her probation. She was also ordered to pay $80,297.90 in restitution.
According to court documents, Mathieu had worked for the DOC since December 2016 while also serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve and New York Naval Militia.
In October 2022, Mathieu began a period of active duty that was scheduled to run through April 2023. But on Dec. 7, 2022, she was released from that duty after driving a government vehicle without the necessary clearance.
Rather than notify the DOC that she was no longer on active duty, prosecutors said Mathieu continued to tell the department that she was serving in the military and therefore entitled to paid military leave.
She allegedly submitted orders that she forged and ultimately falsified at least five documents. Based on those representations, she collected military leave pay from the DOC from December 2022 through March 2024, receiving approximately $80,297.90 to which she was not entitled.
“Paid military leave is a benefit intended to support City employees who are actively serving in the armed forces,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata said in a statement. “Falsifying records to obtain this paid leave is a crime.”
Shihata said the case was particularly troubling because Mathieu was a correction officer, a position in which she was “entrusted with upholding the law.”
The investigation began after the DOC referred the matter to the DOI. The city agency worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case through its Public Corruption Unit.
Mathieu was suspended by the DOC on April 9, 2026, and terminated less than two weeks later, on April 22.
At the time of her termination, she had an annual base salary of approximately $109,352.
The investigation also involved the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs and other federal agencies.
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