And we’re back, dear readers!  A riddle for you – a man rides in to town on Friday, spends the night, and then leaves on Monday.   How is this possible?  Well, his horse is either named Friday or Monday, of course.  You see, I tricked you. 

But therein lies the distinction between a trick and fraud.  To quote Michael Blooth: “I deceived you… [t]rick makes it sound like we have a playful relationship.”

While we can all laugh about playful little tricks, fraud is, of course, no laughing matter.  Thus is the story of Jason Gordon, a Los Angeles Police Officer who has plead no contest to misdemeanor workers’ compensation fraud.  He is sentenced to three years probation, 300 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution. 

Despite being on medical leave for an accepted case, Mr. Gordon was claimed to have been engaged in various physical workout activities that were not “consistent” with his injuries.

Mr. Gordon was with the LAPD for 9 years, during which time, your humble blogger speculates, plenty of cases reached the point of conviction based at least in part on the apparent credibility of Mr. Gordon. 

Police officers aren’t the only ones that commit fraud, of course, but this goes to confirm that even police officers are just ordinary people doing their jobs, and neither their training nor their oaths of service effectively prevent some of them from engaging in deceptive and dishonest behavior.

So, then, why should we hand them a presumption of a largely subjective injury, like a psyche claim, as touched upon in Wednesday’s post? 

“Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do…?”