Five people pled guilty to charges resulting from a scheme where an attorney paid drivers to cause accidents with large trucks. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, people involved with the scheme caused more than 40 accidents.
Larry Williams, Lucinda Thomas, Mary Wade, Judy Williams, and Dashontae Young all took a plea bargain offered by prosecutors. Late last month they pled guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges. As part of their plea deals, they each face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All of those involved were residents of New Orleans and the surrounding area.
Two remaining alleged conspirators, Damian Labeaud and Mario Solomon, are still awaiting trial. Along with the as-yet unnamed ‘Attorney A’, Labeaud and Solomon are thought to be the ringleaders.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Labeaud was regularly in contact with Attorney A. They allegedly met at a restaurant where they “agreed that Attorney A would pay Labeaud $1,000 per passenger for staged and legitimate accidents with tractor-trailers.”
“Attorney A knew Labeaud was staging accident [sic] and Attorney A paid Labeaud for at least forty illegally staged automobile accidents,” reads a U.S. Attorney’s office press release. “In addition, Labeaud and Attorney A would discuss the staging of accidents before they happened.”
When lawsuits were filed against trucking companies involved in the staged accidents, Attorney A would seek as much as $1 million in compensation for the “victims.” It is common for personal injury attorneys to take as much as 33-40% of an award. According to the indictment, Attorney A told a conspirator to get neck surgery in one case because she “would get more money through the lawsuit if she had the surgery.”
While the identity of Attorney A is officially unknown, both of the accidents cited in the indictment were filed by attorney Daniel Keating. No charges have been filed against Keating as of now.
Currently Labeaud is free on bail and Solomon is currently serving time in jail for unrelated charges. The final defendant, Genetta Israel, died last year.
That’s why our insurance is so HIGH. And ELD for safety .It’s not the trucker, The government and everybody else is after truckers
If truck we go home 1 day the the world would see just how important we are.
What does this scam have to do with the government? That’s crazy talk.
ELD has never been about safety. More accident now then it ever has been. Mega companies wants to stop the o/ o that’s all
Eld was not about big companies trying to stop o/o, it was done to stop big companies from forcing their drivers to run are get fired, I have been out here 28 years know, and I made more money known and run less miles, if you have been out here long enough you would know exactly what I am talking about, the only difference I see with eld is you cannot just jump from corner to corner with out keeping your eyes on your hrs, in 2018 i gross over 287,000 before they take their 25% cut, running less than 3000 miles per week, and I have my 1099 can back it up, 2019 was a bad year with the trade war with China we all feel it, 2020 again China with the killer on the loss killing all this people, it’s going to be a very very bad year until they get control of the virus there, so it’s going to be too very bad years back to back,
You are so full of crap. If your theory is correct, why couldn’t small companies get eld exemption?
Why would they get an exemption if the point was to stop companies from forcing drivers to run illegally and stop O/O’s from running over their hours to ensure fair bidding and freight rates? You don’t think small companies were telling drivers to run illegally as much as the big boys?
You might want to look up the definition of anecdotal evidence. Youre basing a conclusion solely on your personal experience. Its saying, “I have a peanut allergy, so everyone must have a peanut allergy”.
You don’t think there are more people doing this! Just three months ago some lady did this to us in Orlando. Fortunately, we had it all on video and she was dumb enough to finally admit it. What do you think this does to the stats on driver safety? It makes it look like it is all the truckers fault.
Reminds me of the corruption that played out when kenworth had labor disputes and deliberately sabotage trucks at the ste Therese factory. How many trucks and injury was paid by insurance companies because transport canada hid the truth about these unsafe trucks and let it happen
This has been going on for a long time. In the last 20 years of my driving, in has happened many times. Pass you then make a left turn. Stopping 80 to 100 thousand pounds of steel will scare the hell out of you. They will be looking at you to see if you can stop. 45 years of driving , I am glad I don’t have to do it.
Allstate sued me and won, when video showed their client harrased and intentionally ran into me, attempting to run me off the road, damaging my truck and the van used to crash into me. Which most of the vans damage was due to the driver continuing to drive with a flat after the crash. The most crazies of arguments by the driver…”He feared for his life”, ( yeah, I’m black) is why he continued to drive on, until police stopped him. Never told why he crashed into me…harrased me to begin with. In addition, he perjured himself on the stand…he indeed had similar charges pending, for running a woman in a car off the road. That, is southern Indiana justice.
That sucks, Chuck. Jurisdiction probably is a big factor there. You’d have probably gotten a better result at trial if it was somewhere more…integrated. I think that is the nicest way of saying it.
Plea deal. 5 years. Up to $250K max. DISGUSTING! Imagine had they have been successful and this scheme had not been exposed. One truck small business o/ops like me (even with 40 years accident free) would have likely been sued to the utmost limit and risk losing everything; it could affect our work prospects, family, home, future
Beware fellow truckers! At the very LEAST arm yourself with a good front and side facing camera system and join an organization providing legal representation. It’s a minefield out there for us every mile we drive.
Thank you USA justice system.
I was driving in VA when a lady (from California) caused an accident. I noticed a lot of white dust on the side of her car. It was bondo. I told the insurance Co they needed to research this lady. They did and found she had pulled this same trick several times in California. Her car had been repaired several times from previous incidents like this one. I don’t why we don’t just paint a big bulls eye on all trucks.
Glad I don’t drive for TARGET.
Hilarious! I get it, “Target”!!! Hahaha.
That’s how it is in the trucking world.if you don’t like it.get out of trucking.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Don’t like it, get out? How about not just accepting a corrupt system and instead of getting out, try to make a change?
Not only DUMBEST thing we’ve ever heard, but his true name must be, Mr. Dumbell Imbecilus Maximus and possibly the RINGLEADER of the abovementioned corrupt Liar…oops I mean Lawyers.
Or, it could be Mr. Dumb Dumb Dummy-pants….or, maybe it is Mr. Shame On You NahNahNeehNah. Or, it could be “Mr. Truth-Unteller, Truth-Unteller, Your Trowsers Are Combusting”!
Member what they said in kiddy-garten about hurts from names vs sticks and stones? Just don’t step on a crack!!!
Heh heh, I said “member”!
Why would you prefer to take the easy way out? Guess who wins if you do that.
I feel for the drivers who may have lost their jobs because of these fake accidents. Or what about some of these trucks who went over the side of bridges or rolled over and nobody knows why? Drivers have paid the ultimate price for what?? Hang these cock holsters high.
I’m sorry but I hold my lane. I will take you out before I go off road. I’ve been out here for 36 years. I will not go off road for dear I will take it out. But knock on wood I’ve never hit a dear yet. I watch my mirrors and if I have no lane to get away I will take the stupid ass out. I do have a camera. And in those 36 yrs I’ve never had a chargeable accident have had a few but non chargeable 1st one head on she died. Very sad, I still live with it, it took a bit to get back behind the wheel but again it was not my fault. Control your vehicle or reape the consequence.
Drive down US 1 in Florida and all you see is Personal Injury Parasitic Lawyers on big billboards looking for business!
Hang all these people high, and put the attorneys in front of a firing squad, and let the truckers they did wrong shoot them, a little rough justice
Dash cams have been putting a lot of these crooked attorneys out of business. So now they’re really getting desperate
I get laughed at all the time when I’m cleaning off my lights AND the DOT stickers. That’s fine. No one ever told an officer “I ran into him cause I could see him”. Trucks all over in the snow areas that you can’t see their taillights (much less the reflectors) cause they’re too lazy to walk 53’and brush the snow off. I stay WAY back from these accidents waiting to happen.
Really? People laugh at you for that??? Hmmm….or, are they laughing at….never mind, don’t want to create a paranoid trucker!
I wonder how white none of these criminals are ??!!
THAT’s not very “woke”!