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Former San Jose California Highway Patrol officer Eric Vincent McCoy, 30, was convicted on two felony charges on June 13 after a month-long trial in Santa Clara Superior Court. The jury found the defendant guilty of workers’ compensation fraud, a violation of California Insurance Code section 1871.4(a)(1), and perjury, a violation of Penal Code section 118.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict, splitting eleven to one in favor of guilty, as to a third felony count of knowingly causing a vehicular collision to present a false claim. Due to the serious nature of the remaining charge, the Office of the District Attorney will be seeking an immediate retrial of that count when the case returns to court on June 28.
According to trial evidence, in late November of 1992, the defendant admitted falsifying time sheets and expense reports at the CHP and was facing possible termination. On December 1, 1992, while on duty in a CHP patrol car, the defendant was involved in a rear-end collision with a Pepsi big-rig truck on southbound I880 in Milpitas. When the defendant was interviewed a few hours after the incident, he claimed to have slowed for traffic ten car lengths ahead of him. His account of the collision was contradicted, however, by an independent witness and by the driver of the big-rig truck, both of whom testified at the trial that there was no traffic ahead of the CHP vehicle at the time of the collision.
The collision was investigated by the California Highway Patrol Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT), which ruled out weather, mechanical defects and obstacles in the roadway as potential causes of the collision. The MAIT team concluded that the collision was caused by the defendant’s sudden stop or slowing in front of the truck without apparent justification.
As a result of the collision, the defendant suffered a herniated disk in his lower back and continued receiving 100 percent of his pre-injury income, tax free, by way of temporary disability. A CHP officer who is injured in the line of duty to the point that he can no longer perform usual and customary duties may also be entitled to an industrial disability retirement whereby he receives 50 percent of his pre-injury income, tax free, for life. However, self-inflicted injuries are excluded from coverage.
Following the collision, the defendant applied for industrial disability retirement and filed a personal injury lawsuit against Pepsi and the truck driver. In August of 1993, the defendant’s deposition was taken in the course of the civil litigation against Pepsi. The defendant’s testimony under oath at that deposition that he had slowed or stopped in front of the truck because he had “no other options” was the basis for the perjury conviction.
The workers’ compensation fraud charge was investigated by CHP’s Bureau of Internal Affairs based in Sacramento and included video evidence that the defendant was jet skiing only days before telling CHP supervisors that he still could not return even to light duty. The fraud conviction resulted from false statements made by the defendant to a doctor and a CHP supervisor in the aftermath of the collision. The statements concerned the defendant’s medical condition and eligibility for ongoing workers’ compensation benefits.
According to trial evidence, had the collision not been investigated, the defendant stood to gain over $972,000 of tax-exempt disability retirement income if he lived to age 70.
Based on the two felony convictions, the defendant, who now resides in Florida, faces a maximum of six years in state prison and fines not to exceed $50,000. He will also be required to reimburse the California Highway Patrol for any benefits fraudulently obtained.
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