Testimony is now underway in a health care fraud trial in Fayette Superior Court.

The Georgia Attorney General's office is prosecuting the case before Judge Andrew Whalen, in which Robert House and Delores House are charged with felony counts of theft by taking, medical assistance fraud and conspiracy to defraud the state. The state charges the Houses netted more than a half million dollars of Medicaid payments in a single year.

Opening statements were made Monday by Scott Smeal of the Attorney General's office and Paul Liston, attorney for the Houses, who are Fayette County residents.

The charges stem from the operation of Family Connections Counseling Service in Fulton County, which the state alleges the Houses used to submit fraudulent Medicaid bills totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the prosecution's portion of the trial Tuesday morning, testimony was heard from an official of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who identified items entered into evidence such as checks written on the Family Connections account and the Houses' personal account. Among those items were a $2,373 receipt from Friedman's Jewelers and a wire transfer of more than $140,000 involving the Houses' bank.

Smeal presented as evidence two certificates that the GBI witness testified were not authentic. A psychology diploma for Robert House from a specialized school and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Clark College were displayed for the jury, at which time the witness said that House's name was "superimposed" on both documents.