The number of guilty pleas in Louisiana staged truck accident probe continues to mount. Duane Evans, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has announced the entry of two more guilty pleas in the last ten days, bringing the total number of guilty pleas to 32. Due to the fact that no defendants have opted to go to trial thus far, there have been no convictions following a trial in the investigation.
When the United States Attorney’s Office reported in February that seven individuals had been indicted, the total number of defendants charged in the investigation had increased to 47. More than two-thirds of those charged have now entered guilty pleas.
The most recent guilty plea, which was revealed on Thursday, did not involve a vehicle in any way. As it turns out, the woman who entered a guilty plea, Ishais Price, 41, was the passenger in a car that was struck by a bus operated by Hotard, a transportation business that specializes in charter services. Doniesha Gibons, Chanrika Brown, and an unidentified third defendant were all present as Price entered her guilty plea, according to the notification of the guilty plea made by the United States attorney’s office.
Six hundred seventy-five thousand five hundred dollars was paid out in insurance claims as a result of the crash in October 2015.
The participants in the staged accidents were charged with mail fraud, just like the rest of the defendants in the many lawsuits against them.
On March 17, Latrell Johnson, 30 years old, entered a guilty plea to one count of mail fraud, with two other mail fraud allegations against him being thrown out. The staged accident in which she was involved occurred on May 11, 2017, and resulted in a collision with a vehicle owned by B.A.H. Express, according to the company. With the February indictment and the subsequent guilty plea, Johnson was one of seven people indicted in a rapid turnaround between indictment and guilty plea.
Both offenders face a maximum sentence of five years in jail, three years of probation, and a fine of up to $250,000 when they are sentenced.
The name of a legal firm that Johnson was in communication with was blacked from the Johnson indictment, underscoring the fact that just one attorney — Danny Keating — has been charged with involvement in the faked accident scam, according to the court documents. Keating entered a guilty plea in June of this year. A further point to note is that, despite the fact that the different indictments and guilty pleas refer to multiple attorneys by the initials A, B, C, D, and E, no other attorneys have been indicted.
The indictments differ in detail, but the general operandi is the same: a group of “slammers” and “spotters” in private automobiles picked a truck or bus as their target and drove in such a way as to cause a collision with it. Lawsuits were filed as a result. In certain cases, the plotters received medical attention that included surgery, which was apparently unneeded, raising the possibility that additional indictments will result in the involvement of medical personnel in the investigation.
The few penalties that have been handed downrange from home detention to four years in prison, depending on the circumstances.
