SALEM — Andover attorney James Hyde and North Andover chiropractor Michael Kaplan were in Salem Superior Court yesterday because they allegedly had too much in common — four car accidents that the state attorney general's office says were phony.
Prosecutors identify Hyde, 56, of Boxford, and Kaplan, 46, of Hampstead, N.H., as conspirators with a Haverhill chiropractor and a Lawrence lawyer in an elaborate auto insurance fraud scam in which they paid the same "runners" to recruit drivers and passengers for bogus crashes.
Christopher Ortega — one of the runners interviewed by the Lawrence auto insurance fraud task force — alleged that Hyde, a partner in the Andover law firm of Berger and Hyde, paid him $200 in cash for every client he referred. Hyde would then file claims on behalf of clients involved in fake crashes, according to the document filed by Assistant Attorney General Kajal Chattopadhyay.
Kaplan allegedly paid $250 apiece for each of the clients he received from Ortega and other runners. Kaplan's clinic then administered unnecessary treatment to patients who were never injured, Ortega claimed.
During Kaplan's arraignment yesterday, Chattopadhyay said the operator of Kaplan Chiropractic Corp. on Sutton Street in North Andover "paid the runners to refer the clients to him, knowing full well that the accidents that caused their injuries were false."
Chattopadhyay alleged that Hyde "paid runners to stage motor vehicle accidents and refer patients in those accidents to his office."
Hyde and Kaplan pleaded not guilty yesterday to numerous counts of auto insurance fraud, conspiracy and related charges. They were among seven people indicted earlier this month by a special grand jury convened by the attorney general's office and focusing on staged crashes that occurred on Oct. 1, Oct. 10 and Dec. 20 of 2002 and Feb. 22 of 2003.
Also indicted as conspirators involved in the planning of those crashes were Haverhill chiropractor Troy Wheelwright, 40, of Amesbury and Lawrence attorney Socrates De La Cruz, 34, of Methuen.
Wheelwright, owner of Haverhill Family Chiropractic at 606 Broadway in Haverhill, pleaded not guilty to auto fraud-related charges earlier this week. Court documents allege he paid runners $300 in cash to refer patients who participated in staged crashes.
De La Cruz was scheduled to be arraigned today. Ortega claims the Lawrence lawyer paid him $150 apiece for every client he referred from fake crashes.
Two indicted runners who helped set up the accidents allegedly ordered by the lawyers and chiropractors also pleaded not guilty yesterday to auto insurance fraud charges: Omar Castillo, 35, of Methuen, a former van driver for Kaplan, and Josue Jerez, 28, of Lawrence. Jerez has been described by fraud investigators as an associate of runner Leo Lopez, 28, of Lawrence, a former Haverhill resident.
Lopez, who also worked as a van driver and chiropractic assistant for Kaplan's clinic, was the seventh area man indicted. He has already been arraigned and is scheduled to be back in Salem Superior Court on May 7. Court documents accuse Lopez, Jerez and Castillo of damaging vehicles to make it appear to the insurance companies that they were involved in crashes.
Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead ordered the four defendants arraigned yesterday to surrender their passports. The judge also set a pretrial conference for May 20.
The attorney general's case is based largely on the ongoing investigation by the Lawrence auto insurance fraud task force assembled by Lawrence police Chief John Romero after the September 2003 death of a 65-year-old great-grandmother from Lawrence who died in a staged crash that police said she helped plan to scam insurance companies. The task force includes a handful of Lawrence police detectives working with investigators of the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts and a handful of investigators from insurance companies doing business in Lawrence.
Prosecutors from District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office also have been working closely with the task force and the attorney general's office. Blodgett called for a special grand jury in 2004, which led to 16 indictments, including three lawyers and four chiropractors.
In an interview after yesterday's court proceeding, Hyde's lawyer, David Meier of Boston, vigorously proclaimed his client's innocence.
"Jim Hyde is a well-respected member of the North Shore legal community," Meier said, adding that Hyde "looks forward to the opportunity to vindicate himself in a court of law."
