In torts, we often discuss strike suits and slip-and-fall actions designed to force settlements from litigation-wary companies. In Louisiana, police arrested a man, Arthur Bates Jr., 47, who they allege staged such an accident. The problem is that it was caught on videotape by the Tesla driver. Such staged accidents are also the work of professional gangs who work with unscrupulous lawyers, including staged moving accidents to force unsuspecting drivers into rear-end collisions.
The incident occurred last Friday at about 4 p.m. when the Slidell Police Department were called to the scene as Bates claimed to have been the victim of a hit-and-run driver. According to the report of the incident, he identified the Tesla and said that he was suffering from back, leg, and neck injuries.
The Slidell police department later posted the video and stated “Unbeknownst to Bates, Teslas record all the footage of their cameras. When Slidell Police officers reviewed the Tesla’s video footage, it became apparent that Bates was lying and staged the entire event.”
When shown the film, Bates reportedly confessed to staging the accident. He is now facing one count of False Swearing with the Intent to Cause an Emergency Response.
Notably, the law below ratchets up if there is any injuries in response to emergency calls but the base offense caps out at six months in jail.
§126.1.1. False communication with the intent to cause an emergency response
A. No person shall, with the intent to cause an emergency response by any law enforcement agency or other first responder in the absence of circumstances requiring such response, knowingly communicate or transmit false or misleading information indicating that conduct has taken place, is taking place, or will take place that may reasonably be believed to constitute a violation of the criminal law of any state or the United States, or that may reasonably be believed to endanger public health or safety.
B. Any person convicted of violating the provisions of this Section:
(1) If no emergency response results, shall be imprisoned for not more than six months, or fined not more than five hundred dollars, or both.
(2) Except as provided in Paragraphs (3) and (4) of this Subsection, if an emergency response results, shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than five years, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or both.
(3) If an emergency response results and serious bodily injury occurs, shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not less than eight years, or fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than two thousand five hundred dollars, or both.
(4) If an emergency response results and the death of a person occurs, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than ten years nor more than forty years.
C.(1) In addition to the penalties provided by Subsection B of this Section, the court shall order the defendant to reimburse the appropriate party or parties for any expenses incurred for an emergency response resulting from the commission of the offense.
(2) A person ordered to make reimbursement under this Subsection shall be jointly and severally liable for such expenses with any other person who is ordered to make reimbursement under this Subsection for the same expenses.
(3) An order of reimbursement under this Subsection shall, for the purposes of enforcement, be treated as a civil judgment.
D. For purposes of this Section:
(1) “Emergency response” means any action taken by a law enforcement agency or other first responder to immediately respond to any conduct or event that is reasonably believed to violate the criminal law of any state or the United States, or that threatens or may reasonably be believed to threaten public health or safety.
(2) “Law enforcement agency” includes any federal, state, or local law enforcement agency.
Acts 2018, No. 348, §1, eff. May 20, 2018.
This is a financial crime, insurance fraud. The “false report” is just the opening act.
Oh I slipped and put 20 ballots in the drop box. Oh well it’s only a two day sentence reduced to on day for a first time offense. I can do that amount of time practicing Slipin on my head.
Why do they bury lawyers under 20 feet of dirt. Because deep down their really good people. What do they call a lawyer with an IQ of 60. Your Honor. How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb. One to hold the ladder, one to shake it and one to sue the ladder company. Jokes from Better call Saul.
The real name of the culprit is Slipin Jimmy.
A “read-end collision”. Did Turkey mean to spell “rear”.
No…the incident happened outside a library???
Read-end is a cross between you head and your butt. Keep up with the jargon Liberty.
It’s unlikely that this man was working alone. A lawyer is needed to bring the lawsuit and a doctor to verify the injuries. The “victim” is the least important participant in the scheme because he can only participate as a victim in one lawsuit, whereas the lawyer and doctor can run the scheme many times.
Slipin Jimmy joins up with dupin doctor. Worth another episode?
Better call Saul.
Hey! Something on a Tesla works!
I don’t think jail time is the solution. The man should be fined the amount of money he hoped to defraud out of the system. Hurt back, leg and neck; sounds like 100K to me. Law enforcement should have also delayed the arrest. I would love to see what doctor(s) he goes to to document his injuries and the lawyer they work with, then hit them all with fraud and massive fines.
I never thought about why lots of great dash video on youtube comes from Russia. The reason is almost all car owners run dash cams…to protect themselves from the Government traffic enforcement officers that are less than scrupulous in their enforcement.
I had a friend that got pulled over in Des Moines. The cop said hhe rolled through a right turn on red. My friend said she was so sorry, she did not realize the light was red..she said she would go back and look at her video to see where she went wrong, pointing to the small camera mounted on the rear view mirror bracket. The cop turned red, told her to pay closer attention, and he never wrote a warning.
This has been going on for a very long time. The only difference is todays video/camera world. And the only 2 words JT used that surprised me were, unscrupulous lawyers, see I thought they all were. My bad, ok attack me, well I will change that to all lawyers who are politicians. Now we all know that’s true!
6 months isn’t enough, 6 yrs more like it.
It would be useful to know how much of a problem staged accidents are. Neither Prof. Turley’s post or the reference he provided give data on how much staged-accident fraud actually occurs.
Gosh, you’re so right! If only there was some interconnected network of computers and servers he could’ve used to find out that information. We could call such a thing The Interwebs and create an engine to search it for us.
1) Are you reading Mr. Turley’s blog on your grandkid’s tablet, or have you never heard of the Googles?
2) If you have ever used modern technology, have you considered starting your own blog where you can write about whatever minutia you find interesting. Perhaps that’s too much work, or perhaps you’d prefer to offer you editorial services to Mr. Turley.
For reference: https://ycharts.com/indicators/world_tea_price
It’s like voter fraud. If you aren’t specifically looking for it, you find none.
You would think that such a high-tech vehicle would have recorded the incident on something more modern than videotape.
Well, to be fair, Tesla does use Betamax: it’s one reason they cost so much!
That Tesla just paid for itself. Now we should find out if this fine upstanding citizen has any previous law suits. I say give him the 6 months!
Nice. Know your victim is the lesson here. Or at least your victim’s car