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Shaky fraud charge compounds painDismissed case called intimidation attemptBy Mary FrickerPress Democrat staff writer Kathleen Murphy showed up 15 minutes early for her hearing at the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in Santa Rosa on Sept. 5, 1995, just as her attorney had requested. She had been injured while working for PetsMart in Rohnert Park three years earlier -- when a fellow employee lowered a jack loaded with a pallet of cat and dog food onto Murphy's right foot. Her foot was crushed, and she was in a dispute with Fremont Compensation Insurance Co. over her benefits. As she waited, an official she believes was from the state Department of Insurance walked in, looked at the court attendance register, came over to her and said, "You're under arrest for fraud.'' Murphy said she still has nightmares about that day. "I couldn't breathe. It was like a bad dream. He grabbed my cane and said, "You don't need this. You're not fooling anybody.''' She was booked into the Sonoma County Jail, charged by the Sonoma County District Attorney with the theft of $50,196 that Fremont Compensation said it had spent on her case -- about $13,000 in weekly benefits paid over 2 1/2 years and the rest for medical care. She also was charged with perjury for telling Fremont attorneys during a deposition that she had to walk with a cane most of the time, that she could not walk the length of the Santa Rosa Plaza without having problems, that she was losing feeling in her leg, that she had no feeling in her foot, and that she could not stand for more than 10 minutes without experiencing pain. She was in Sonoma County Jail two days until her parents, who live in Weaverville, paid her $10,000 bail by taking out a loan on their life insurance. On the day of her arrest, Fremont Compensation -- which has built its reputation on aggressively pursuing fraud -- issued a press release, saying Murphy had claimed an on-the-job foot injury kept her from working but she had been observed dancing in high heels and shopping for hours at a local mall. The next day the news appeared in media reports. "If I had done something wrong, dealt drugs, robbed someone, I'd deal with it. But I didn't do anything wrong. "It still blows me away. It felt like I was in a Third World country." Eventually, the Sonoma County District Attorney's dropped the case. The insurance company responded that it was justified in bringing the charges and that it will continue to closely watch injury claims. Fremont said it has had three cases in Sonoma County that led to arrests -- Murphy's case was dropped, one resulted in a conviction and one in a misdemeanor guilty plea. "The idea is to get to the truth of the matter,'' said Ranney Pageler, vice president of Fremont's fraud investigations department. "Two out of three were convicted. I'm not going to criticize the justice system. It's supposed to be just.'' Over a period of 1 1/2 years, the District Attorney's Office twice offered to settle Murphy's case. But that would have meant the end to her workers compensation benefits, and Murphy was having none of it. Besides, she wasn't guilty. "They messed with the wrong person. I'm Irish. I didn't do anything wrong. I said, "Let's go to trial.''' The day the jury trial was to begin, Monday, Jan. 13, 1997, the District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges. Deputy District Attorney Bruce Enos, who had just taken over the county's new task force to prosecute workers compensation and automobile insurance fraud, said the evidence did not support prosecution. Even the insurance company's own doctor said Murphy was not lying, he said. Today Murphy is trying to start a new life. One of her biggest battles is with depression. She sometimes has to walk with a cane, she limps, she can't play football or volleyball or go hiking with her friends, and she can't pursue her goal of being a paramedic. A workers compensation judge ruled a year ago that she was entitled to have Fremont Compensation pay for future medical care for her injury, as well as treatment for depression. Her case is still open. Murphy is bitter about the way she was treated. "They were hoping ... here's this young girl who has nothing, she has no money, she suffers from mental problems, she will break down and we can get her. Thank God for my parents and my family. They stood by me." She said she tries not to think about the past, but it's hard. "I bumped into an old high school friend the other day who said, "My God, I thought you were in prison.'"
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