LYNNWOOD — Prosecutors allege that a Lynnwood man faked the severity of an injury while collecting $88,000 from state workers’ compensation.
The man, 64, said he slipped and fell while working at a Korean restaurant in Bellevue in July 2014. A chiropractor later diagnosed him with cervical and lumbar strains.
He used the diagnosis and ran with it, prosecutors say. He told the state Department of Labor and Industries that he couldn’t work for more than three years, according to charging papers recently filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.
That wasn’t true, L&I investigators concluded. They said the defendant changed his name and became a real estate agent.
He failed to mention the new job when he filled out forms for compensation, prosecutors allege.
Investigators staked out the man’s real estate office in Lynnwood during the summer of 2017. On at least six occasions, they saw him walking around without any apparent difficulty.
It was a different story at the chiropractor’s office. He took small steps, stumbled through the door and required assistance from his wife, investigators wrote.
The investigators followed him to Costco. They videotaped him leaving the store carrying a large item with both hands. He parked in a handicapped spot.
In October 2017, the man was required to do a physical test to determine his eligibility to work. Doctors cleared him to return to his job at the restaurant, according to charging documents. When the defendant filed another form to L&I the next month, though, he claimed he still couldn’t work.
Investigators obtained a search warrant to look through the defendant’s office in December 2017. They found documents suggesting that he had been working in real estate since at least 2015, records show.
About two weeks later, the defendant told L&I that he started a new job.
The man is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 10 for an arraignment. He is accused of first-degree theft.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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