Our San Diego paralysis law firm knows that lying about a spinal cord injury will make a bad situation worse.  Leaving out pieces of your story, in a legal matter, will not lead to a better settlement, but it can get you into serious trouble with the law.

That’s what happened after a San Francisco correctional officer lied about the gunshot that paralyzed him from the waist down.  The paralyzed officer and his wife are facing five felony counts of conspiracy to commit fraud for his worker’s compensation claim in which he falsely accused an ex-con of shooting him.

According to the story in the Sacramento Bee, a San Francisco corrections officer claimed to be having dinner with his wife when a former inmate on parole shot him in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down.  The man filed a workers’ compensation claim for a possible paid out approaching $2.5 million.  In actuality, he was shot after an altercation at a “swingers” club when an argument happened and the man attempted to flee.

Police were informed that the man did not want to disclose information “about the swingers club and hoped it would not get back to his department ” and it did not for some time.  He pursued his claim, at one point almost reaching an $8 million settlement, until it was brought to the attention of the court that the state did not have the original police report.  The shooter in the case was never caught.  On March 11, 2010, the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office filed charges against the man and his wife for lying about the gunman being a former inmate at the injured party’s place of employment.

Our firm’s San Diego paralysis attorneys never like to hear cases like this because it takes away credibility in case where people need help with their paralysis treatments after a car accident or a slip-and-fall incident.  Trying to play it off as related to this man’s occupation, too, only hurts the situation if these facts turn out to be true.

How will this play out?  If these allegations are true, then this is a serious case.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and suffered a spinal cord injury or paralysis, we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following the accident at 1-858-551-2090 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced paralysis lawyer in San Diego. We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.