May 27, 2008

JURY CONVICTS CLARENDON MAN OF INSURANCE FRAUD

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on May 23, 2008, Francis Fredette, 42, of Clarendon, Vermont, was found guilty by a jury of mail fraud and wire fraud. United States District Judge J. Garvan Murtha presided over the three-day trial in United States District Court in Brattleboro, Vermont. Fredette, who is free on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 1, 2008 and faces up to 40 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine. The Court will also determine whether Fredette will be ordered to pay restitution.

The testimony at trial revealed that on November 19, 2000, in the early morning hours, the defendant, Fredette, and his self-described crime partner, Louis Coffin, left their homes in Rutland and traveled to Randolph, Vermont, to conduct a burglary of the Rinker's Mobil Station in Randolph. While Fredette and Coffin were on the roof of the Mobil Station, a car drove up to use the pay phones. The car startled Fredette, who ran and either jumped or fell off the roof of the gas station, breaking his back. While lying on the ground at station, Fredette instructed Coffin to retrieve his vehicle, and had Coffin drive him to Coffin's apartment house, located at 52 S. Main Street in Rutland. There, Fredette had Coffin place him at the foot of an exterior staircase, for the purpose of creating a phoney accident scene. Coffin went to the top of the staircase, kicked out a stair tread, called for an ambulance, and reported that Fredette had fallen down the staircase and broken his back. Approximately one month later, Fredette filed a lawsuit against the landlord and owner of the apartment building and falsely claimed that he had suffered his injury because the staircase was maintained in a defective condition. In March 2003, Fredette and the owner of the building reached a $700,000 settlement of the lawsuit, of which the owner paid $150,000 and the owner's insurance company paid $550,000.

The fraud came to light in 2004, when Louis Coffin was cajoled into coming forward by a man named Bill Williams, the ex-husband of the defendant's current wife. Williams had become angered by the defendant, and decided to investigate his background. Through that investigation, Williams learned that the defendant had told a couple with whom he was living, as well as his ex-girlfriend, of the fraud. With information he obtained from those sources, Williams went to Coffin and ultimately persuaded him to disclose his involvement in the fraud and the truth about how the defendant received his injuries to the authorities. Coffin pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy to commit mail fraud charges and is awaiting sentencing.