2 more charged in death of Louisiana staged accident witness

A new indictment in the staged accident scam in Louisiana charges a disbarred lawyer and another man with participating in the murder of a cooperating witness who was gunned down in his home in 2020.

The superseding indictment in what prosecutors have dubbed Operation Sideswipe was unsealed Friday and reported by the U.S. attorney’s office Monday. It replaces a January indictment that charged Ryan Harris, 36, also known as Red, with murdering Cornelius Garrison at his home. When that indictment was unsealed, Harris had agreed to plead guilty to the charges. He was first indicted in May 2024.

But in the legal document known as the proffer that was released in connection with Harris’ guilty plea, it was revealed that Harris had identified disbarred lawyer Sean Alfortish and Leon Parker, also known as Chunky, with participating in Garrison’s murder. They were not indicted at the time. Alfortish had been working with law firms involved in Operation Sideswipe. 

The proffer says Parker murdered Garrison and that Alfortish paid him for the act. As for Harris’ role, he arranged for Altorfish and Parker to meet, according to the proffer. “Harris knew that, by arranging the meeting between Alfortish and Parker, he was assisting Alfortish and Parker’s scheme to murder Garrison.”

Harris was sentenced to 35 years in prison. 

Harris was first indicted in May 2024 along with Jovanna Gardner. But prosecutors later concluded Gardner had only minimal involvement in Garrison’s shooting, and her case was dismissed after she pleaded guilty to witness tampering.

Charges against lawyers reiterated in new action

The indictment, as a superseding legal step, also reiterates the earlier indictments of several other attorneys and their firms that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana says were involved in the planning of Operation Sideswipe. The series of staged accidents began as far back as 2011 with the goal of prying loose insurance payouts from trucking companies and insurers. The largest payout is believed to involve an accident with truckload carrier C.R. England that totaled about $4.75 million.

The indictment charging Alfortish and Parker with Garrison’s murder said they conspired with “others known and unknown to the grand jury” in Garrison’s shooting. 

Parker and Alfortish are in custody, according to the court filing that set May 14 as the date for the arraignment of all the defendants in the case. The others are free on bond from the original indictment.

It is the indictment of Alfortish and Parker that is fresh in the superseding indictment.

Otherwise, its verbiage appears identical to the December indictment against the other defendants who were charged with much of the planning for Operation Sideswipe: attorney Vanessa Motta, 43 of New Orleans; the Motta law firm; Jason Giles, 46, of New Orleans, an attorney and partner at the King Firm, a New Orleans law firm that also was indicted; and defendants, Diaminike Stalbert, Carl Morgan and Timara Lawrence. (Local media in New Orleans reported that Motta, a former stuntwoman,

The latter three were charged with being part of the staged accidents. Earlier indictments of others who were not planners but participated in the collisions primarily with Class 8 vehicles but also with buses and high-priced cars have mostly resulted in guilty pleas on charges of mail fraud. Out of 63 indictments so far, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said there have been 51 guilty pleas, with no indictments going to trial.

(In an unusual twist, Motta’s mother has asked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to intervene in the case, according to local press reports.)

The indictment also refers to the participation of slammers “G, H and I” without identification. Slammers, in the staged accident scam, created the collision with a vehicle and then exited their own automobile as soon as the crash took place, with somebody else taking their spot in the driver’s seat.

Two of the organizers of the scam, Damian Labeaud (who also was a slammer) and attorney Danny Keating, pleaded guilty in 2020 (Labeaud) and 2021 (Keating). Their respective sentencings have been delayed multiple times; Labeaud’s was to be in early May but was recently  postponed until October. Keating’s sentencing scheduled for earlier this year also got pushed to that month.

The recap in the superseding indictment includes references to several people who already have pleaded guilty, including Keating and Labeaud. The sentences handed down so far in the case range from probation to home detention to four years in federal prison.

The U.S. attorney’s office also notes attorneys “C,D,E and F” as being part of the planning and execution of Operation Sideswipe. That suggests indictments of other attorneys may be handed down in the future.

Those unidentified attorneys “knowingly pursued fraudulent lawsuits based on staged collisions,” according to the superseding indictment.

Earlier indictments referred to attorneys “A and B.” Those two letters are not mentioned in the latest round, suggesting they were the attorneys and law firms in the superseding indictment who are now identified: the Motta firm and the King firm. 

The specific charges against Parker and Alfortish are witness tampering through murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder and causing death through use of a firearm.

More articles by John Kingston

A market on the precipice: 5 takeaways from the April State of Freight

Wall Street embraces Ryder’s mildly positive earnings report then pulls back

TFI’s Bedard upbeat on revamped US LTL operations even as numbers sink

The post 2 more charged in death of Louisiana staged accident witness appeared first on FreightWaves.