WHAT A HEEL: Judge Sentenced For Insurance Fraud
Former Superior Court Judge Michael T. Joyce was convicted on two counts of mail fraud and six counts of money laundering for lying about neck and back injuries and abusing his position on the bench to receive preferential treatment from two insurance companies that paid him $440,000 for claims he filed after a slow-speed car accident in August 2001, reports The Legal Intelligencer:
Joyce took up flying after the automobile accident, continued to play golf for some time and went scuba diving and inline skating, he said. And the judge filed his claims on judicial letterhead, [Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold] said, and referred to himself as a judge 115 times in the letters. …
On April 8, 2002, Trabold said, Joyce visited a doctor and complained of muscle twitches and other pains. But in the afternoon, the judge filled out a form for his private pilot's medical checkup. On it was a question as to whether the applicant had ever been diagnosed with a “neurological disorder.” Joyce checked “no.”
Joyce, who is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10th, could have faced “decades in prison,” but is unlikely to get the maximum sentence as he has no prior criminal record. However, he will probably have to return his ill-gotten gains as well as part of his state pension.
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