For unadulterated audacity and out and out gall, Michael Joyce, a Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge, may currently hold the lead in this year’s gold medal competition.
Scanning Insurance Journal Online today, we learned that last Wednesday, federal prosecutors indicted Judge Joyce for mail fraud and money laundering, claiming that he cheated the Erie Insurance Group and State Farm Insurance out of $440,000, a charge the judge denies as he protests his innocence.
Judge Joyce came to our attention not for what he is accused of doing, but for how he is alleged to have done it. According to the indictment, Judge Joyce, while parked in his Mercedes-Benz sedan in 2001, was rear-ended by an SUV traveling about 5 mph. That’s right, five miles per hour – I’ve crested middle age and I still can run that fast.
Following this horrendoma of a crash, no police or medics were called to the scene, yet the Judge asserted that the impact rendered him unable to exercise or play golf for more than a year. He was paid $390,000 by his insurer, the Erie Group, and $50,000 by State Farm, which insured the poor SUV driver.
Unfortunately for Judge Joyce, the indictment alleges that, not only was he playing 18- hole rounds of golf shortly after the “accident,” but he was doing it on vacation in Jamaica. It also claims that he was scuba diving, inline skating (I’ve never gotten the hang of that) and working out in his local Gym. The man must be a medical and physical marvel.
At any rate, Judge Joyce has announced that, infirmities and indictments notwithstanding, he will continue his run for a second ten-year term in this fall’s coming election.
The state’s Supreme Court last Friday suspended Judge Joyce, with pay, “to protect and preserve the integrity of the Unified Judicial System, etc…”
And what, you may ask, did Judge Joyce do with his new-found wealth? Well, according to the indictment, he used it to buy a motorcycle and make down payments on a house and an airplane, which, of course, he intended to fly. We know that, because on the application for his pilot’s license he asserted that he had no injuries or physical problems that would preclude his flying up, up and away, which he then did about 50 times.
There is terrible injustice here. We’ll let the courts decide whether it has been done to the Judge, or by him.
Tags: Disability, fraud
