A sweeping indictment in the Louisiana staged accident scam charges eight individuals – two of them attorneys – as well as two Louisiana-based law firms with involvement in the scam, which authorities say included the murder of a potential witness who was gunned down in his home.

While the murder charges are the most jarring part of the statement releasedMonday by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana about the indictments, Ryan J. “Red” Harris already had been indicted in connection with the death of Cornelius Garrison. Garrison, who had pleaded guilty to charges in the scam and was cooperating with investigators, was shot in the doorway of his home on Sept. 20, 2020.

Harris and Jovanna Gardner were indicted in May in connection with Garrison’s death. The charges in the superseding indictment related to the slaying are an extension of those initial allegations, though they do not mention Gardner, who pleaded guilty to witness tampering soon after she was indicted on the murder charge.

The rest of the indictment has long been expected, given that the on-the-ground individuals involved in staging accidents with trucks (and in one case a bus) in order to pry loose insurance payouts have pleaded guilty over the past several years and are assumed to mostly be cooperating.

Total charged in Operation Sideswipe: 63

The most recent plea came Oct. 31. It brought the count of individuals who have pleaded guilty to 49. None of the indictments has gone to trial. With the latest indictments, 63 individuals have been charged, according to the U.S. attorney, which has dubbed its investigation “Operation Sideswipe.”

There are 10 counts in the indictment. Besides the murder-related charges against Harris and Gardner, the charges include a variety of wire fraud, mail fraud, obstruction and witness tampering allegations.

All of the individuals previously indicted, including those who have pleaded guilty, were facing some combination of wire fraud and mail fraud charges.

The indictment charged two New Orleans law firms that have long been reputed to be connected with the staged accident scam: the King Law firm and the Motta Law Firm.

The Motta Law Firm is run by Vanessa Motta, 43, a stuntwoman turned lawyer whose web page for the Motta Law Firm cites truck accidents as an area of specialty. She also reportedly was Garrison’s attorney. Motta was indicted individually as well as her firm.

Jason Giles, 45, is described in the indictment as a former member of the King Law Firm. He was indicted in the case.

Other indictments of individuals:

• Sean Alfortish, 57, a disbarred attorney who has served time in federal prison on charges he attempted to rig an election for a horse racing association. He portrayed himself as an attorney in helping to direct some of the collisions behind the scenes, though he had long been disbarred.

• Leon Parker, aka Chunky, 51, who is described as a friend of Harris. According to the indictment, he was involved in at least three staged collisions.

• Diaminike Stalbert, 34, who is charged with being involved in staged collisions and obstruction.

• Carl Morgan 66, who is a member of Harris’ family and was involved in at least one staged collision, according to the indictment.

• Timara Lawrence, 34, who is described as being in a romantic relationship with Harris and also involved in staged collisions.

According to the prepared statement, Harris already was in custody. Parker made an initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate Monday. The others will have initial appearances soon, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Other “lettered” attorneys not charged

One notable aspect of the indictment: It refers to attorneys, C,D, E and F as being involved in the scam. Earlier indictments had referred also to attorneys A and B, who were specifically not listed in the latest indictment, leading to speculation that they may be Motta and Giles. It also suggests that indictments of attorneys might not be finished.

The indictment puts the start of the scam back almost 13 years exactly, to Dec. 12, 2011. It also alleges Giles was behind the first staged collisions, working with Damian Labeaud, who pleaded guilty to his indictment for mail fraud in August 2020 and whose sentencing has been delayed multiple times. It is now set for Jan. 9.

Giles also worked with Roderick Hickman, who also pleaded guilty in October 2020. He was sentenced in October 2023 to three-and-a-half years in jail, the second-longest sentence after a husband and wife team who received four years for their involvement.

The two law firms, according to the indictment, “pursued fraudulent lawsuits knowing they were based on staged collisions.” Giles joined the King Law Firm in 2015, according to the indictment, and continued working with Hickman and Labeaud in staging accidents even after the move. The indictment also said the King Law Firm was aware of Giles’ activities.

“Giles and the King firm paid Labeaud and Hickman via cash and checks for bringing them staged collisions,” the indictment said. The two men also allegedly had been “spotters” and “slammers” in the collisions.

The slammers drove the car into the collision, then escaped while another person in the car moved into the driver seat, authorities said. Spotters, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, were individuals “who drove getaway cars that allowed the slammers to flee the scene after causing a collision and evade detection by law enforcement. The spotters would sometimes also pretend to be eyewitnesses and would flag down the commercial vehicles after the staged collisions, alleging that the commercial vehicles were at fault.”

The indictment said Labeaud and Hickman were also “runners,” who brought in people willing to be passengers in the car that struck a vehicle. They received $1,000 for each person recruited into the scam, according to the indictment.

The indictment says Labeaud first met with attorney Danny Keating in 2017 and told him of the scam. Keating then offered $1,000 per passenger for the same service, and he began orchestrating staged collisions, the indictment said.

Another delay for Keating sentencing

Keating pleaded guilty in June 2021, the only attorney indicted prior to this week’s set of charges. His sentencing has been delayed multiple times. It was scheduled for later this month; it’s now set for March 13, the change having just been made Monday.

Eleven separate collisions are identified in the indictment as having been staged by Keating or Giles as the attorneys and Lebeaud and Hickman for their spotter/slammer/runner activities. None of the collisions spelled out in the indictment identify the name of the carrier, but other legal proceedings have done so; C.R. England is the most notable name.

As defense attorneys were beginning to catch on to a pattern, according to the indictment, “Giles and the King Firm committed various acts of obstruction of justice and witness tampering.” The indictment spells out a variety of steps taken as part of that obstruction, including having Labeaud leave town and getting the passengers in the collision to sign documents called Verification of Facts, which were not actually factual: They did not note that  the collisions were staged.

Alfortish and Motta, according to the indictment, then began staging collisions working with Harris, who had been trained on how to pull them off by Garrison. That discussion in the indictment also spells out collisions staged by Alfortish, who though disbarred in connection with his earlier conviction had persuaded others he was still an active attorney, and Motta. The number of incidents attributed to their activities is the same as for the Giles/Keating collisions: 11.

According to the indictment, Alfortish and Motta also engaged in obstruction when they learned federal investigators were looking closely at the rash of collisions between cars and trucks.

All of the charges in the indictment related to Garrison’s slaying deal with Harris. There is nothing in the indictment that suggests any of the attorneys in the case ordered Garrison’s killing or worked with Harris to have it carried out.

Louisiana attorney J. Edward McAuliffe of the Louisiana law firm of Mouledoux, Bland, Legrand & Brackett, who has written several blog posts on his firm’s website about the investigation,  summarized the case Tuesday, which he described as “huge.”

“This new indictment sheds more light on federal prosecutors’ progress in investigating accident stagings,” McAuliffe wrote. “The naming of additional attorneys and further allegations related to the murder of Cornelius Garrison have been hotly anticipated for some time.”

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Saturday marked the beginning of Louisiana’s new black bear hunting season, but it will probably be a while before the sport is accessible to more than a select few hunters and landowners. 

Gov. Jeff Landry announced the opening of the season, which will last through Dec. 22, at a press conference Monday alongside hunting enthusiasts and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) officials. The governor pointed to the recovering population of black bears in the state, estimated at nearly 1,500, as a sign of successful conservation efforts. 

“We now have so many that they’re getting in the way of deer hunting,” Landry said, alluding to claims that bears are displacing deer and competing with them for food. 

The Louisiana black bear, the official state mammal, came under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1992. Its population had dwindled to near extinction, primarily the result of deforestation and habitat destruction. The governor also cited overhunting as a factor. 

Conservation efforts, including an LSU AgCenter program to reintroduce the animal in certain areas of the state, eventually increased the bear’s numbers. Their rebound prompted federal regulators to remove the Louisiana black bear from the endangered list in 2016.

Still, some conservationists and residents remain opposed to killing the bears for sport. In an effort to stop the creation of a bear hunting season, Humane Society of Louisiana executive director Jeff Dorson started a petition last year that garnered more than 38,000 signatures. 

But state lawmakers continued to press the idea. Last spring, the Louisiana Legislature passed a resolution by Rep. C. Travis Johnson, D-Vidalia, to have Wildlife and Fisheries study the viability of a black bear hunting season. He introduced the proposal to help manage an uptick in reported bear encounters, particularly in the Mississippi Delta region of rural northeast Louisiana. 

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission then issued a notice of intent to open the black bear hunting season with 10 permit tags for hunters. Each tag allows for the killing of one bear. The first tag went to an organization that takes military veterans hunting.

Back in January, Johnson said he expected LDWF would offer 10 tags to the public through a lottery system. On Monday, however, LDWF Secretary Madison Sheahan said seven of those tags went to the private landowners who allowed the agency to use their land for the repopulation of the bears. 

Among the remaining tags, only one was issued via a public lottery for hunting on state land, and another was issued through a similar lottery for hunting on private property in designated areas with the owner’s permission. 

Hunters with tags are permitted to kill only adult male bears in certain parts of northeast Louisiana, including Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes and portions of Richland, Franklin and Catahoula parishes. 

According to the LSU AgCenter, additional Louisiana black bear populations exist in the Morganza floodway just west of Baton Rouge and in the region stretching from the lower Atchafalaya Basin near Morgan City to the Houma area. However, those areas are not open for bear hunting. 

Sheahan said the agency will continue to monitor the black bear populations and, if necessary, adjust the number of hunting tags for future seasons.