Tustin woman facing felony charges after filing a fraudulent insurance claim

ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY NEWS RELEASE

Case # 17CF0915

Date: May 11, 2017

MAN AND WOMAN TO BE ARRAIGNED FOR CONSPIRING TO FILE FRAUDULENT INSURANCE CLAIM AND FALSELY ALLEGING POLICE MISCONDUCT

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man and a woman are scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow for conspiring to file a fraudulent insurance claim and falsely alleging police misconduct when the accident report was not consistent with their untrue statements.

Defendants: 

• Sylvia Bustillos Camarillo, 31,Tustin
• Lamont Kenneth Goodwin, 33, Inglewood

 Felony Charges:

• Conspiracy to commit a fraudulent insurance claim
• Five counts of insurance fraud

Misdemeanor Charges:

• Falsely alleging police misconduct

Maximum Sentence: Eight years in state prison

Court Date: Arraignment on May 12, 2017 at Department C-55, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana

Circumstances of the Case

• On May 29, 2016, Goodwin is accused of driving Camarillo’s vehicle and causing a traffic collision in Tustin.
• Tustin Police Department (TPD) officers responded to the scene and noted in their traffic accident report that Goodwin was the driver of the vehicle and the vehicle had no passengers.
• Camarillo and Goodwin are accused of conspiring to claim Camarillo was the driver of her vehicle and Goodwin was the passenger at the time of the collision, because Goodwin was an excluded driver on the auto insurance policy.
• Camarillo is accused of arriving at the scene shortly after the accident, calling Mercury Insurance Group (Mercury), and claiming she was the driver during the collision in a recorded statement.
  Goodwin is accused of stating similar false information about who was driving at the time of the crash during the phone call with Mercury.
• The defendants are accused of receiving approximately $18,000 from Mercury for the insurance claim.
• When Mercury confronted the defendants about TPD’s traffic collision report that listed Goodwin as the driver, they are accused of committing insurance fraud by continuing to falsely state that Camarillo was the driver.
• On June 13, 2016, Goodwin and Camarillo are accused of filing a supplemental report with TPD and falsely alleging police misconduct by the officers at the accident scene, claiming the officers were racist and falsified the initial traffic accident report.
• The supplemental report initiated an internal investigation by TPD, who later contacted the California Department of Insurance (CDI).

CDI and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation investigated this case. CDI arrested Goodwin on April 14, 2017. Camarillo was taken into custody on the same date.

Prosecutor: Deputy District Attorney Eya Garcia, Insurance Fraud Unit

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TONY RACKAUCKAS, District Attorney

Susan Kang Schroeder, Chief of Staff
Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718

Michelle Van Der Linden,Spokesperson
Office: 714-347-8405
Cell: 714-323-4486