A Las Cruces equine therapist, who masterminded a nearly $1 million Medicaid fraud, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to return the money she stole.
On Tuesday, the judge in the Third Judicial District Court ordered Nancy Marshall to repay $970,000. Marshall was taken straight to prison after she did not show up for her sentencing and the money she was supposed to return.
The judge accepted a plea agreement on Tuesday in which Marshall pleaded guilty to defrauding the state healthcare system by inventing fake diagnoses, forging records, and even stealing the identities of staff and young patients, including children.
Marshall is the owner of the Equine Assisted Program. She also runs a therapy program in Las Cruces that uses farm animals in treatment.
In March 2025, prosecutors indicted her on 18 felony counts for making false Medicaid claims.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said, “Medicaid is a lifeline for New Mexicans who depend on these services, and every dollar stolen from the program is a dollar taken away from patients who need care.”
“This defendant abused the trust placed in her by patients, families, and the State, even going so far as to steal identities and fabricate records to line her own pockets.”
What you need to know
Investigators accused Marshall, who ran the fraudulent scheme for about two and a half years, of collecting payments from Medicaid for counseling sessions she never conducted, claiming to have treated children who were actually sitting in school classrooms at the exact times she said they were with the horses, and using other therapists’ professional ID numbers to push through the fake claims.
Marshall’s two former key staff members exposed the fraudulent scheme. They warned officials about the dodgy practices they saw.
When Marshall failed to produce the required portion of the restitution at sentencing, the court wasted no time locking her up.
Officials from the New Mexico Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud and Elder Abuse Bureau spent months investigating the case.
Torrez vowed to continue hunting down anyone who puts “personal profit ahead of the people they are entrusted to serve.”
