A former stuntwoman from New Orleans who transitioned into a career as a lawyer has found herself entangled in a complex legal predicament after being implicated in an alleged fraudulent scheme linked to staged car crashes, as per authorities. Vanessa Motta, aged 43, now faces federal charges for her alleged involvement in this intricate plot, where she purportedly collaborated with another attorney in representing plaintiffs in these sham accidents.
Motta, along with her fiancé Sean Alfortish, a disbarred lawyer, and several others, are accused of participating in a sophisticated conspiracy revolving around orchestrating car collisions, some of which involved deliberate collisions with 18-wheelers in the New Orleans region, as detailed by prosecutors. The scheme reportedly entailed drivers, referred to as “slammers,” purposefully causing the accidents and then swiftly fleeing the scene with the aid of a designated getaway driver. Subsequently, the slammer’s passenger would falsely claim to have been driving at the time of the crash, as outlined by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Moreover, the fraudulent operation extended to individuals posing as witnesses to assert the blame on the other party involved in the collision, according to prosecutors. Motta’s alleged role in the illicit activities encompassed filing bogus claims and lawsuits subsequent to these orchestrated accidents, charges to which she pleaded not guilty on a recent Monday, as reported by Nola.com.
Following the initiation of an investigation into the scheme, Motta and her associates purportedly engaged in various acts of obstruction of justice and witness tampering to impede the legal inquiries. In a particularly grave development, one of the accused slammers, Ryan Harris, stands accused of the murder of a former accomplice, Cornelius Garrison, in an attempt to conceal the crimes, authorities assert.
In early December, Motta was officially charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. Consequently, both Motta and her fellow attorney Jason Giles had their licenses suspended in late December following the mounting legal accusations.
Despite her current legal woes, Motta’s past involvement in the film industry as a stuntwoman for notable productions such as “Jurassic World,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Logan,” and “Furious 7” has garnered attention. Her IMDb profile attests to her diverse stunt work in these blockbuster films, a background that Motta had leveraged in her legal advertising endeavors.
Motta had capitalized on her Hollywood experience in her promotional materials as an attorney, as evidenced by a commercial showcasing her performing various stunts and proclaiming, “Stuntwoman turned bad a– attorney,” accompanied by a voiceover urging clients to enlist her legal services when needed.
In response to the charges, Motta’s lawyer, Sean Toomey, has steadfastly maintained her innocence, asserting that if the accidents were indeed staged, his client was also a victim manipulated by others, as reported by Nola.com.
