Calif correctional officer, wife face fraud charges for alleged lie about sex club shooting

CA officer charged with fraud in sex club shooting

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California correctional officer faces fraud charges after authorities allege he filed a workers’ compensation claim falsely stating he was shot by a parolee while leaving a restaurant, when he actually was shot in a dispute at a sex club.

John Smiley, 44, filed a workers compensation claim last year saying a former inmate recognized him and opened fire on April 27, 2008, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, The Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.

The state was ready to pay nearly $2.5 million in a settlement when it requested a copy of the police report and discovered a different account of the shooting. A criminal probe was launched in November, court records said.

Now Smiley and his wife, Cynthia Ann Biasi-Smiley, face five felony counts alleging they conspired to commit fraud. The two are due in Sacramento County Superior Court on Wednesday for arraignment.

A message left for the pair Tuesday at a phone listing for John Smiley was not immediately returned.

According to the police report, Smiley and his wife had gone to a swingers club, where couples could go to have sex with strangers.

Court documents allege they were having sex with another couple when Smiley’s condom broke, angering the woman’s male companion. The unidentified man threatened Smiley and later shot him in the back as Smiley and his wife were walking to their car, the documents said.

San Francisco police arrived, and Smiley and Biasi-Smiley told them what happened, court records said. Smiley also told officers he hadn’t wanted to inform them “about the swingers club and hoped it would not get back to his department,” court documents allege.

Court records also state that a colleague told investigators that Smiley said he was shot by a parolee while leaving a San Francisco restaurant.

Smiley has worked for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation since March 10, 2003, agency spokesman Gordon Hinkle told The Associated Press. Smiley worked out of the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy transporting inmates, Hinkle said.

Hinkle said the agency’s internal affairs department began investigating the criminal allegations of workers’ compensation fraud against Smiley in November 2009.

Smiley remains classified as an employee because he is taking accumulated leave time, Hinkle said. He added that he did not know how much leave time Smiley has accumulated.

No arrests have been made in the shooting.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund has issued a report saying it expected to spend nearly $2.5 million to settle the claim, but instead has spent $6,500 investigating the fraud allegation.