2 NOLA Law Firms Indicted For Staging Accidents For Settlement Money

In a plot that feels more at home in the worlds of Saints Row or Grand Theft Auto, two New Orleans law firms were indicted on Dec. 9 in a federal lawsuit that accuses them of staging wrecks and faking injuries to collect settlement money.

According to The Guardian, Vanessa Motta, a television stuntwoman turned attorney-at-law, was among at least 52 people indicted for the scheme.

One of her clients was secretly cooperating against her and was shot and killed with help from two other clients of hers in 2020, an incident that delayed the investigation against Motta, which eventually led to her indictment.

Motta’s fiance, Sean Alfortish, was also indicted for his role as the bankroller for the “slammers,” or individuals who intentionally jammed into 18-wheelers.

The indictment includes charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, making false statements, witness tampering through murder, retaliation against a witness through murder, and a violation of the federal Gun Control Act.

Fox 8‘s legal analyst Joe Raspanti indicated in his commentary that the legal community had been waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding the involvement of lawyers and law firms.

“In the legal community, everyone’s talking about it,” Raspanti said. “In the previous indictments, with the people who did the ‘slamming’ and false accidents, the roads would lead back, supposedly, to lawyers. And we were always waiting for something like this to occur.”

According to the indictment, the arrangement of using “spotters” to find 18-wheelers for the “slammers” to target stretched back to early 2011 and continued into 2024.

Following the wrecks, those “slammers” would claim to be injured and sue the truckers’ insurance companies in hopes of getting a generous settlement with the help of lawyers at Motta Law and The King Firm.

Per the indictment, “Alfortish, although he was a disbarred attorney, worked with Motta at Motta Law,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “Alfortish paid slammers for staged collisions.”

Ryan Harris, a New Orleans resident who owns a car repair shop, was also named in the indictment as one of the “slammers.”

“Harris was a slammer who drove automobiles and intentionally collided with 18-wheeler tractor-trailers and other commercial vehicles in order to stage collisions,” prosecutors said. “Harris staged collisions for Alfortish, Motta, and Motta Law.”

Harris is also accused of murdering Cornelius Garrison, who was cooperating in the investigation of Motta and others named in the lawsuit.

“I think part of what they’re saying in one of those counts is that they obstructed justice by killing a witness, and that is in this indictment also,” Raspanti noted.

According to one of Motta’s attorneys, if the allegations of staged accidents are true, then she is also a victim.

“If these accidents were, in fact, staged, my client was also a victim and taken advantage of by others. Over the last five years, Vanessa has been unjustly vilified in the press and so while we strongly believe this indictment is misguided, we are looking forward to the trial of this case where Vanessa will finally be vindicated,” Motta’s attorney told Fox 8.

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