Vegas lawyer found guilty

Rachael Levy

Thursday, July 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A federal court jury has convicted a Las Vegas lawyer of participating in a series of fake car accidents that tricked insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The jury deliberated for about eight hours Wednesday before convicting Norman Reed of 41 counts of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

The 34-year-old man rocked slowly, head tilted to one side, as each charge was read aloud. His wife broke down, running from the courtroom and screaming "Dammit!" from the hall.

Reed's attorneys argued during the five-week trial that the lawyer was like a dozen others who unknowingly represented "victims" of faked accidents.

But the government showed that Reed, who handled the majority of the false personal injury lawsuits, was well aware the medical claims were not real. In a secretly recorded conversation with an FBI informant, Reed did not contradict the informant's characterization of one case as "bogus."

The trial continues Monday with additional evidence being presented to support a perjury charge against Reed. The government accused him of lying to a grand jury.

The four-man, eight-woman jury was instructed to not talk about the case. And as Reed left the federal courthouse, his shoulder around his wife, he said, "I can't comment 'til the trial's completely over with."

His attorneys, Richard Wright and Karen Winckler, and prosecutor Dan Schiess also declined to discuss the verdict.

The conviction caps a six-year FBI investigation and 1 1/2 years of trial preparation. More than 50 Las Vegans, among them a Filipino doctor, pleaded guilty and were punished for their participation in the insurance fraud scheme.

Only two people, Reed and U.S. Postal Service employee Freddie Gross, fought the charges. Gross was more fortunate: The jury found him innocent of a charge that he participated in a staged fender-bender.

The government built its case against Reed through secretly taped conversations and the word of former participants who betrayed the lawyer in exchange for lighter punishment.

Reed's attorneys attacked the credibility of the government's witnesses, arguing that it was purchasing their testimony in return for freedom. Many of those indicted in the scheme entered a program similar to probation -- but if the time is successfully served, the felony charge is dismissed.

It appears, though, that the assistant U.S. attorney's determination to point out the evidence against Reed won out over his witnesses' shady pasts.

Using charts and lists, Schiess showed the striking similarities among 30 car accidents. The pattern usually involved two cars with the at-fault motorist accepting responsibility for the crash.

The injured passengers suffered from bruises and scrapes and went to the same doctors. Most unusual was the fact that the same people kept getting into accidents.

"This is musical cars, mixing and matching the people all the way through," Schiess said in Tuesday's closing argument. "But Mr. Reed tells you 'I didn't know. I couldn't see the pattern ... that existed.' The evidence says that is not true."