Stuntwoman personal injury attorney staged car crashes for profit: feds
A former stuntwoman-turned-attorney is facing federal charges after an alleged scheme to stage car crashes and file fraudulent insurance claims and lawsuits in New Orleans, according to federal authorities.
Vanessa Motta, 43, her disbarred lawyer fiancé, Sean Alfortish, and several "slammers" – professional drivers who intentionally collided with 18-wheelers and fled the scene – are among the eight that took part in the conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Another getaway driver would help the "slammer" flee the scene, the feds wrote. Then, the slammer's passenger would claim to have been operating the vehicle leading up to the car wreck. Other conspirators would act as witnesses and claim that the drivers of the 18-wheelers were at fault in the crashes, according to the release.
Motta, who allegedly filed the fraudulent claims and suits after the crashes, dabbed her eyes in court and pleaded not guilty on Monday, Nola.com reported.
"If these accidents were in fact staged, my client was also a victim and taken advantage by others," her lawyer, Sean Toomey, told Nola.com.
Motta opened her own law practice, Motta Law, LLC, in 2017, according to her office's website.
She, Alfortish and attorney Jason Giles, who also allegedly represented plaintiffs in the bogus New Orleans-area crashes, both had their law licenses suspended in December and were charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, obstructing justice and witness tampering.
The indictment against the attorneys also named a slew of other defendants who allegedly participated in or helped set up the crashes: Leon "Chunky" Parker, Diaminke Stalbert, Carl Morgan, Timara Lawrence and Ryan "Red" Harris.
Prosecutors said that Harris, one of the alleged "slammers," shot his former partner-in-crime Cornelius Garrison dead to keep him quiet about the scheme, according to Nola.com. Garrison had been cooperating with federal authorities in their investigation before he was killed in September 2020, the outlet reported.
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Jovanna Gardner, who has been charged in connection with Garrison's death and has said she was in a romantic relationship with Harris, said in court that her then-partner admitted to killing Garrison and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, the outlet reported.
Garrison's murder was a major stumbling block in a federal probe called "Operation Sideswipe," which saw charges lodged against 50 people, according to Nola.com. Only one attorney, Danny Keating Jr., has been convicted, and still awaits sentencing.
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Only Parker and Alfortish, 57, are currently behind bars. Prosecutors said Alfortish was "engaged in a months-long scheme to silence Garrison" before he was murdered through offers to pay him off or move him to the Bahamas, according to the outlet.
Motta was released pending trial on a $25,000 bond on Monday, while Giles was released on a $100,000 secured bond, according to court records. Motta could not immediately be reached for comment.
The embattled former stuntwoman worked on Jurassic World, Logan, Furious 7, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and other films, according to her IMDb profile.
Motta's television commercials characterized her as a "stuntwoman turned bad a-- attorney" and showed her involved in numerous stunts.