Post 5254
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gqva4sJq, see the video at https://lnkd.in/gR7AAuJR and at https://lnkd.in/gYfDxq_D, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5250 posts.
Help a Person Commit Insurance Fraud & Go to Jail
Guilty of Tampering With Evidence by Hiding it in Garage
In State Of Montana v. Lila Lynn Lord, 2025 MT 302, No. DA 24-0343, Supreme Court of Montana (December 30, 2025) Lila Lord (Lord) appealed her conviction for Tampering with Evidence following a jury trial in the Seventh Judicial District Court, Richland County. The case centered on a staged burglary in Sidney, Montana, orchestrated by Marie Chris Entzel with the intent to collect insurance proceeds to cover her son’s legal fees. Entzel recruited several individuals — including David Skaw, Lawrence Pohl, Laurie McGregor, and the defendant, Lila Lord — to assist in removing valuable items from her home, causing property damage and theft of items such as an enclosed trailer, boat and trailer, refrigerator, pistol, and television.
Entzel’s husband was away and unaware of the plan; upon his return, he reported the incident to police, prompting an investigation. Entzel was charged with insurance fraud and false reports, but not with tampering with evidence. Lord was charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and tampering with evidence for allegedly taking and hiding stolen items at her residence while knowing an official investigation was underway.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The State alleged that Entzel, Skaw, Lawrence Pohl (Pohl), Laurie McGregor, and Defendant Lord, among others, were involved in the staged burglary.
The State called Entzel, Skaw, and Officer Norby to testify. Although Entzel and Skaw had both entered guilty pleas before Lord’s trial, neither was compelled to testify as part of their plea agreements. By the time Skaw had returned 1-2 hours later, Lord was done taking apart the refrigerator.
Lord, Skaw, and Entzel loaded the refrigerator’s doors into Lord’s vehicle and the body of the refrigerator into Entzel’s truck. Entzel testified that Lord was fully aware of the insurance fraud scheme.
The jury found Lord not guilty of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and guilty of tampering with evidence.
LEGAL ISSUES:
On appeal, Lord challenged her conviction for tampering with evidence, raising several legal questions:
1. whether the District Court erred in denying her proposed accomplice jury instruction;
2. whether the court wrongly denied her request to allow a witness (Pohl) to testify remotely by video; and
3. whether the court erred by denying her motion for a directed verdict based on insufficient corroboration of accomplice testimony.
These issues focus on the fairness of trial procedures and the sufficiency of evidence supporting her conviction.
Did The District Court Err By Denying Defendant’s Request For A Witness To Testify By Video?
Two days before trial, Lord moved the District Court for leave for witness Lawrence Pohl to appear and testify by video, which was denied. Because Lord was ultimately acquitted of the conspiracy to commit insurance fraud charge, she suffered no prejudice from Pohl’s failure to testify.
Did The District Court Err By Denying Defendant’s Directed Verdict Motion Based On Insufficient Corroboration Of An Accomplice’s Testimony?
The Court of Appeals concluded that Entzel and Lord were not accomplices for purposes of an accomplice instruction, given Lord’s innocence defense, and as such, the State was not burdened to corroborate Entzel’s testimony. Based on the court’s review of the record it found there was sufficient evidence to support the District Court’s denial.
Lord admitted when police officers informed Lord that Entzel’s boat had been seen in her garage, Lord replied that she was at least aware a boat had been placed in her garage.
Construing the evidence in a light most favorable to the State, a rational jury could have found from this direct and circumstantial evidence that Lord had concealed or tampered with evidence, that is, Entzel’s property, while knowing that an official proceeding or investigation was about to be instituted.
ZALMA OPINION
It takes a great amount of gall for a person to assist in a criminal act – taking possession of property the defendant knew would be claimed stolen as part of an insurance fraud scheme. Lord was only convicted of taking possession of the property – a refrigerator and a boat – to assist the insurance fraud scheme. To then appeal wanting to make the originator of the crime help her avoid conviction was, as it should be, unsuccessful.
(c) 2025 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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The Largest Residential Burglary of All Time
Post 5407
Fraud & the Fear of Bad Faith Suits
Posted on July 22, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gWQQEySW and at https://lnkd.in/gyhdK6wv
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
After ...
Chutzpah is not Enough
Post 5397
Posted on July 20, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the video and at https://lnkd.in/gNUs2XzT and at https://lnkd.in/g2MawyzX
Magistrate Issues a Search Warrant if there is a Fair Probability that Contraband or Evidence of a Crime will be Found in a Particular Place.
In United States Of America v. Frank Suess, et al., CRIMINAL No. 3:24-308, United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania (July 16, 2026) a federal grand jury indicted Frank Suess, Melissa Driscoll, and others in a 55-count health care fraud and anti-kickback prosecution arising from an alleged scheme involving medically unnecessary prescription “foot baths.”
As part of the investigation, the FBI obtained an August 19, 2022 warrant to search Driscoll’s Sterling Pharmacy Yahoo email account for emails from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020. Driscoll moved to suppress the resulting evidence, arguing that the warrant lacked probable cause, was overbroad, and rested on material misstatements and omissions.
LAW:
The ...
Fraud Shouldn’t Pay
Post 5396
See the video and at https://rumble.com/v7ctgmq-the-great-jewel-theft.html at https://youtu.be/aRbQ2sJfGwA
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the ¬¬¬Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
The Insured purchased, for the first time in his life, a policy of Personal Articles Floater Insurance (PAF) scheduling $125,000 worth of ladies jewelry. He advised the insurer that the jewelry was always kept in a class E safe at his residence. He also told the insurer that he was employed full time as the owner of a gasoline service station and that he had never been canceled or suffered a previous loss.
One month after the policy was ...
Day Care Owner Loses Subsidies Because She Criticized State
Post 5421
Posted on August 11, 2026 by Barry Zalma
First Amendment Right Will be Allowed to Go to Trial
In Betsey J. Grant v. Maine State Department Of Heath And Human Services, No. 1:25-cv-00490-JAW, United States District Court, D. Maine (August 6, 2026), Betsey J. Grant, a licensed childcare provider and operator of Tiny Tikes Daycare in Trenton, Maine, sued Maine DHHS and several employees after she publicly criticized DHHS before Maine’s Government Oversight Committee and alleged that officials retaliated against her.
She claimed DHHS imposed and extended a conditional license, published stigmatizing information, interfered with subsidies and program funding, removed her from a food program, rescinded an expansion grant, and used biased or falsified evidence in licensing proceedings. Following the March 10, 2023, GOC testimony, Ms. Grant alleges that foster children's subsidies (approximately $30,000) were withheld; she was removed from the ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units. After an underlying personal injury action was filed, Union Mutual determined that the property actually contained three apartment units and rescinded the policies on the ground that the defendants had made a material misrepresentation in the applications.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true facts been disclosed. To establish materiality as a matter of law, the insurer must submit documentation of its underwriting practices, such as manuals, guidelines, bulletins, or rules addressing similar risks.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
As a result, the...
