Sentencing date set for fraud defendant

Thursday, April 5, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure has set May 16 as the sentencing date for James A. Duna on his guilty plea Wednesday to a charge of trying to bilk an insurance company in a slip-and-fall case in Clark County in December 1995.

The state attorney general's office said Duna, 43, of Chicago, conspired with Bryan C. Ballog in a scheme in which Ballog claimed he slipped on water and was injured in the men's restroom at the J.C. Penney store in the Meadows mall. He submitted a claim to Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which is the insurance carrier for J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

An investigation revealed Duna and Ballog splashed water on the floor and Ballot laid down, feigning injury. Ballog had pre-existing injuries to his mouth. And the two sprayed a blood-like substance in the washroom. Ballog was captured in 1998 and sentenced to 34 months in the state prison.

Duna pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and he faces up to four years in prison.

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