A corrections officer at the Allegheny County Jail has been charged with insurance fraud after she lied to investigators, telling them that her car had been stolen when her boyfriend crashed it into an unmarked police car and fled.
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Veronica Brown, 52, of Sheraden, initially told police that she awoke on the morning of Nov. 1 to find her 2008 Pontiac G6 had been stolen and that she thought she had dropped the keys and electronic remote to it the previous night, according to a criminal complaint.
Police later told her that a man who was about 5 feet 10 inches tall drove her car through a red light in the early hours of Nov. 1, striking an unmarked county police car on the West End Bridge and then fleeing.
Ms. Brown reported the accident to her insurance company and claimed about $6,700.
Questioned by police again in February, she told police that her boyfriend, Chester White, called her that night to tell her that he crashed her car and planned to run away before police arrived. Ms. Brown told police that Mr. White is a “dangerous” man and that he threatened to harm her if she didn’t report the car stolen, according to the complaint.
Court records show that a Chester White, 34, of Rankin, was charged with criminal solicitation, causing an accident involving damage, driving without a license on the same day Ms. Brown was charged with insurance fraud, theft by deception and filing a false report with law enforcement.
Ms. Brown has been suspended from her job without pay, said Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for county Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Ms. Brown is to appear Thursday in court for a preliminary hearing.
