What’s going on at the Louisiana staged truck accident trial?

Who’s on trial? On trial are attorneys Jason Giles of the King Law Firm and Vanessa Motta of her own firm who are charged with helping to orchestrate the staged accidents where a car full of people would crash into a truck in the New Orleans area and then hope to collect a big payout. Federal prosecutors dubbed their investigation “Operation Sideswipe.” The King Law Firm is also a defendant.

Keating speaks: Among the most notable testimony this week came over two days from Danny Keating, the one attorney who pleaded guilty all the way back in 2021 and whose sentencing has been postponed numerous times.

Keating said his involvement in the staged accidents scheme began in 2017 and ended in 2020. That latter year is when the fraud began to unravel and indictments started to come out of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. It also is the year when in September, Cornelius Garrison, a so-called “slammer” who would plow a car into a truck, pleaded guilty and began to cooperate with prosecutors. Soon after that, Garrison was  was gunned down in his home. Motta and Giles are not charged in that death, but Motta’s fiance  Sean Alfortish is a defendant in that case that has yet to go to trial. (The WDSU coverage reports the two are still engaged, though Alfortish, being charged with a murder, remains in federal custody.)

Keating said Giles introduced him to Damien Labeaud, one of the on-the-ground organizers of the scheme who was behind the wheel for some of the collisions. The drivers would then flee the scene and other people in the car would move their places so that a different person was sitting in the driver’s seat. 

Labeaud also pleaded guilty several years ago and like Keating has had his sentencing postponed several times. They are both now scheduled to be sentenced next month, Labeaud on April 2 and Keating on April 9. 

Keating said at the start of the scheme, he was approached by Lebeaud and Giles. Keating said he was “short on cash” after going through a divorce.

As WDSU described Keating’s testimony, “Keating testified that he had known Giles since 2015, and said some of the staged wrecks cases he was a part of came from Giles’ office. Communications surrounding the wrecks happened mostly with in-person meetings, phone calls, and text messages. According to Keating, he kept $100,000 to $150,000 in cash at his home for payments, and admitted to having involvement in at least 120 wrecks.”

The number of wrecks he cited is staggering. If all of the incidents in the various indictments of the passengers and “slammers” indicted in the case are counted up, it would not reach 120. The U.S. Attorney’s office currently lists indictments of 49 persons. While some of the indictments described multiple collisions per indictment, the math would  suggest fewer than 120 wrecks being described in the indictments. 

No other persons charged in Operation Sideswipe have gone to trial. The others pleaded guilty usually to one or a series of mail fraud charges. Some of the persons indicted have yet to have their case resolved.

There was this testimony from Keating, which WSDU doesn’t say elicited laughter in the courtroom, but could have: “Keating testified that he would wrap payments in a newspaper that he’d then toss into Labeaud’s truck while he said, ‘Did you read the paper today?’”

Motta attorney’s opening statement: There is little doubt that on a personal level, the most intriguing relationship in the case is between Alfortish, now accused of murder, and Motta, a former stuntwoman who advertised her own law firm with her personal appearance as an obvious selling point.

Sean Toomey, her attorney, said in his opening statements that it was Alfortish who was fully at fault. “”She foolishly thought she was the hottest new lawyer in town, all the while Sean Alfortish is working behind the scenes, in the darkness, to make sure she was successful and get all the benefits of that because he’s sleeping with her,” Toomey was quoted as saying. The referrals she was getting from Alfortish were coming to him because of his relationship with the larger scheme. As WDSU described Motta, she was a “’baby naive lawyer’ with ‘terrible taste in men’ but not a criminal.”

Vanessa Motta and Sean Alfortish in an undated photo from the GoneSouthPodcast Instagram feed.

Giles’ attorney opening statement: Lynda Van Davis, who represents Giles, said in her opening statement that “once suspicions were raised within the firm, Giles acted accordingly.” 

“My client made no agreement, my client had no knowledge, and my client was not a part of this staged collision conspiracy,” Van Davis said in the opening statement.

King Law Firm opening arguments: The King Law Firm, where Giles worked, is also a criminal defendant in the case against Giles and Motta. Rick Simmons is defending the firm, and he said in his opening statements that, as WDSU described, “the King Firm obtained good results from cases and that referrals came from the success of the firm and advertising. He then pressed the jury to find a distinction between legitimate crashes and staged crashes, saying he would present that Giles and the firm did their due diligence when the allegations of suspicious activity were raised.”

Simmons said there was no relationship between the King Firm and Labeaud and Ryan Harris, another “slammer” who already has pleaded guilty.

More dollar figures: Roxanne Galliano, a CPA and tax preparer for Alfortish–who is not on trial along with Motta and Giles–testified that while preparing Alfortish’s taxes, she recorded payments to murdered potential witness Garrison totaling $119,000. She said she did not know what the payments were for, with them listed as “professional fees.”

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