The first criminal trial arising from Louisiana’s long-running staged truck accident scheme is now underway in New Orleans, offering the clearest courtroom look yet at a fraud case that has been unfolding for years.
While FreightWaves has reported extensively on the case, local broadcaster WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, has been following the proceedings inside the courtroom as the jury trial begins. The proceedings are expected to last three to four weeks.
At the centre of the trial are attorneys Jason Giles of the King Law Firm and Vanessa Motta, who ran her own firm. Prosecutors accuse them of helping orchestrate staged accidents in which cars carrying multiple occupants deliberately collided with trucks in the New Orleans area in the hope of securing large financial settlements. Federal prosecutors named the wider investigation Operation Sideswipe. The King Law Firm itself is also a defendant in the case.
One of the most notable witnesses so far has been attorney Danny Keating, who pleaded guilty back in 2021. His sentencing has been postponed multiple times, but he testified over two days this week about his role in the scheme.
Keating said his involvement began in 2017 and continued until 2020, the year the fraud began to unravel and indictments started emerging from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. That same year, in September, Cornelius Garrison, one of the so-called “slammers” who deliberately drove cars into trucks, pleaded guilty and began cooperating with prosecutors. He was later shot dead in his home.
Neither Motta nor Giles is charged in Garrison’s death. However, Motta’s fiancé, Sean Alfortish, is a defendant in that separate case, which has not yet gone to trial. WDSU reported that Motta and Alfortish are still engaged, although he remains in federal custody on the murder charge.
According to Keating, Giles introduced him to Damien Labeaud, one of the on-the-ground organisers of the operation and a driver in some of the staged crashes. Keating described how, after collisions, the drivers would flee and passengers would rearrange themselves in the vehicle so that someone else appeared to have been behind the wheel.
Labeaud also pleaded guilty several years ago and, like Keating, has seen sentencing delayed several times. He is now scheduled to be sentenced on April 2, while Keating is due on April 9.
Keating testified that he had been approached at the beginning of the scheme by Labeaud and Giles, and said he was short of money following a divorce. According to WDSU’s summary of his testimony, Keating said he had known Giles since 2015, that some of the staged crash cases came from Giles’ office, and that communications around the wrecks took place mainly through in-person meetings, phone calls and text messages.
He also testified that he kept between $100,000 and $150,000 in cash at home for payments and admitted involvement in at least 120 wrecks.
That figure stands out because it appears higher than the number of collisions described across the various indictments involving passengers and slammers in the case. The U.S. Attorney’s office currently lists 49 indictments, and even allowing for multiple crashes in some cases, the total number explicitly described appears lower than 120.
So far, no other defendants charged under Operation Sideswipe have gone to trial. Most of the others pleaded guilty, usually to one or more mail fraud charges, although some cases have yet to be resolved.
One striking detail from Keating’s testimony involved the way payments were allegedly delivered. He said he would wrap money in a newspaper and toss it into Labeaud’s truck while asking, “Did you read the paper today?”
The trial is also drawing attention because of the personal and professional relationship between Motta and Alfortish. In her opening statement, Motta’s lawyer Sean Toomey argued that Alfortish was the real wrongdoer and described Motta as a naive young lawyer with poor judgment in relationships rather than a criminal participant. He said she had been manipulated while Alfortish worked behind the scenes to ensure her success and benefit from it.
Jason Giles’ attorney, Lynda Van Davis, told jurors that once suspicions were raised within the King Law Firm, her client acted appropriately. She said Giles made no agreement, had no knowledge of and was not part of any staged collision conspiracy.
The King Law Firm’s defence, led by Rick Simmons, argued that the firm achieved strong results through legitimate cases and advertising, and that referrals reflected that reputation rather than illegal links. According to WDSU, Simmons urged the jury to distinguish between legitimate crashes and staged ones, and said the firm had carried out proper due diligence once concerns arose. He also denied any relationship between the firm and Labeaud or Ryan Harris, another slammer who has already pleaded guilty.
The trial also heard testimony from Roxanne Galliano, a CPA and tax preparer for Alfortish. She told the court that while preparing his taxes, she recorded payments to Garrison totalling $119,000, listed as “professional fees”. She said she did not know what the payments were for.
As the trial continues, it is expected to offer the most detailed public examination yet of a scheme that has become one of the most unusual and disturbing fraud cases to hit the U.S. trucking industry.
