Billboard for accident attorney Vanessa Motta, one of the car crash scam defendants (WWL/YouTube).
A 10-count indictment has been unsealed in a murder and insurance fraud case out of New Orleans, in which lawyers and residents are accused of orchestrating “staged collisions” around the Crescent City for money — with paid “spotters,” “slammers” and “runners” in on the take — and one of the alleged schemers being killed off for talking to cops, according to federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed the indictment this week and listed charges for New Orleans residents Ryan “Red” Harris, 36; Sean Alfortish, 57; Vanessa Motta, 43; Jason Giles, 45; Leon “Chunky” Parker, 51; Diaminike Stalbert, 34; Carl Morgan, 66; and Timara Lawrence, 34; as well as the local law firms Motta Law, LLC, and The King Firm, LLC.
Giles and Motta are both attorneys based in the Big Easy, while Alfortish — Motta’s fiance — is disbarred.
Charges were first filed in the homicide and insurance fraud case back in May against Harris and his girlfriend, Jovanna Gardner, 39, of Chalmette, Louisiana for first-degree murder of a government cooperator after the alleged widespread fraud conspiracy was uncovered. Several others who were involved have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, including convicted “slammer” Damian Labeaud, who is scheduled to be sentenced in January, and his partner Roderick Hickam. Prosecutors initially declined to release the identities of the lawyers and firms that were allegedly involved.
“From approximately 2011 through approximately 2017, Labeaud, Hickman, and others staged numerous collisions for Giles, The King Firm, Keating, and others,” the complaint for the unsealed indictment says, listing seven new defendants that weren’t named in May.
Prosecutors accuse the group of “conspiring to file and pursue” fraudulent lawsuits based on the staged collisions they allegedly carried out. The defendants used “coded language,” including fishing terms, to disguise conversations about their illegal “scheme,” according to DOJ officials.
“The scheme included individuals who rode in automobiles as passengers knowing they would be part of staged collisions,” the agency said in a statement Monday, the day the full indictment was unsealed. “Those individuals later lied as part of fraudulent insurance claims and fraudulent lawsuits based on the staged collisions. Additionally, the scheme included individuals who drove automobiles and intentionally collided with 18-wheeler tractor-trailers and other commercial vehicles, in order to stage collisions (‘slammers’). After the staged collisions, the slammers would flee the scene and a passenger would falsely claim to have been driving at the time of the collision.”
According to the complaint, “runners” were in charge of referring individuals involved in automobile collisions to the lawyers and law firms for money.
One of the group’s members, Cornelius Garrison, started “covertly cooperating” with federal agents in October 2019 and they allegedly found out about it, according to the DOJ investigators. He had worked for both Harris and Gardner in the alleged scam and was serving as both a “slammer” and a “spotter” for the couple, which are described as positions that require theatrics.
Prosecutors say the group planted passengers in cars or semi-trucks after hitting them with vehicles and then those people filed bogus insurance claims. After the crash occurred, slammers would flee and spotters communicated with them on whether police were in pursuit or nearby. Oftentimes, spotters are tasked with pretending to be witnesses and required to flag down commercial vehicles. Once a person pulls over to help, the people involved would start blaming them for the collision, according to court documents.
The Justice Department believes Garrison was murdered by Harris and Gardner in September 2020 after he was federally indicted on conspiracy to commit mail fraud and other charges associated with the bogus wrecks that same week. He was indicted on Sept. 18 and found dead on Sept. 22 inside his home — shot multiple times, according to prosecutors.
Harris and Gardner were charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit witness tampering through murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder and other crimes.
Gardner has since pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of witness tampering, while claiming that Harris admitted to her that he killed Garrison.
Each defendant in the newly unsealed indictment faces a charge of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years upon conviction.
Motta, Giles and Alfortish also face witness tampering and obstruction of justice charges, which carry maximum sentences of 20 years and 10 years, if convicted, respectively. Harris faces three additional counts of retaliation against a witness through murder, causing death through use of a firearm and witness tampering through murder.
Attempts by Law&Crime to reach the King Firm and Motta Law for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.
