NEWPORT — A 52-year-old Cornish woman has pleaded guilty to involvement with a Medicaid fraud scheme and will spend three weeks behind bars for providing false information to a grand jury weighing charges in the case.

Kimberly Patterson, of Beechwood Driver, pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of false swearing in Merrimack County Superior Court on May 31 and has been sentenced to serve 12 months in the House of Corrections, of which all but 21 days is suspended for a three-year period, according to court records.

Patterson had been charged along with another couple last November in a Medicaid fraud scheme in which prosecutors allege the couple lied about their residences in order to submit false mileage reimbursement claims for Medicaid to cover their travel expenses to treatment programs. The couple pleaded guilty last month.

According to court documents, Patterson knowingly provided false testimony to a state investigator and Merrimack County grand jury by attesting that one of the co-defendants accused in defrauding Medicaid had been residing in Cornish when in fact the co-defendant was residing in Concord.

Jeffrey Odland, a Manchester attorney who represented Patterson, noted that his client had never previously been arrested and was not accused of receiving any Medicaid funds.

“Regrettably, she was dishonest during the course of the investigation in a misplaced effort to protect a loved one,” Odland said via email.

Patterson had initially been charged with felony perjury and Medicaid fraud, both charges which carry substantially stiffer penalties if found guilty.