A New Orleans woman is the latest person to plead guilty in an elaborate scheme with a local law firm to defraud tractor-trailer insurance companies by staging automobile accidents with tractor-trailers on highways in New Orleans.
Department of Justice attorney Duane A. Evans announces that Latrell Johnson, 30, of New Orleans, pled guilty on Wednesday to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud for her role in the staged crash scheme.
According to court documents, Johnson falsely claimed that she was a passenger in a car that was struck by a tractor-trailer on May 11, 2017. The defendant conspired with Damian Labeaud, Mario Solomon, and others to intentionally collide with a tractor-trailer on Chef Menteur Highway at Downman Road in New Orleans.
Labeaud and Solomon along with attorney Danny Patrick Keating Jr. are the masterminds behind the massive operation to collect insurance money from staged crashes with the trucks according to the DOJ.
After the intentional crash, federal prosecutors say Johnson filed a fraudulent lawsuit claiming that the tractor-trailer was at fault and lied in a deposition. This scheme caused the insurance company for the tractor-trailer to pay over $140,000.00 in settlement funds for the May 11, 2017 collision.
Judge Jane Triche Milazzo set Johnson’s sentencing for July 13.
How the scheme works
The federal prosecutor says before the crash, Johnson was aware Mario Solomon and Damian Labeaud staged car crashes together to make money. Labeaud, known as the “slammer” would drive vehicles and intentionally crash into 18-wheelers to stage the crash. Solomon was the “spotter” who would follow Labeaud in a separate vehicle and then pick up Labeaud from the crash scene before police would arrive.
On the day of the crash, Johnson got into a Ford Expedition with co-conspirators Joseph Brewton, David Brown, Larry Picou, and Gilda Henderson along with Labeaud who was the driver.
The DOJ says Labeaud told the co-conspirators that he will intentionally crash the Expedition into a truck and then leave the scene while the passengers called the police.
Labeaud instructed Brown to get into the driver’s seat after the crash and told the passengers to claim they were injured but not to go to the hospital.
Solomon in another vehicle picked up Labeaud and chased down the tractor-trailer driver who was unaware of the crash. Solomon would flag the truck driver down and tell the driver he witness the crash.
The DOJ says the truck driver’s insurance company paid Brown $3,242 for the damage done to the Expedition she did not own. Attorney Patrick Keating would then file a personal injury on behalf of Brown, Johnson, and Picou against the truck’s insurance company, Westfield Insurance Company. Henderson was filed as a separate lawsuit involving the same staged crash.
The law firm would pay Johnson a total of $1,800. The insurance company would also pay Johnson $7,000 through Keating to settle her claim. The insurance company sent a settlement check to Picou for $130,000.
