Her Insurance Was Innocence
by Ellis Henican
Chris Renfroe could have said, "This is too much trouble, driving all the way out to Suffolk County from Queens Boulevard, postponement after postponement, for some two-bit insurance-fraud case."
Yes, he could have said that.
And Artie Grix could have said, "How many hours can I afford to put in for one small client, tracking down witnesses who clearly don't want to be found?"
But Renfroe, a busy Queens Boulevard lawyer, and Grix, a dogged Queens Boulevard private eye, were in a delicate situation, a situation that requires special attention in their line of work.
They had an innocent client.
They were convinced Luanne Chase-Lindie was innocent, anyway. A 30-year-old day-care worker who came here from Georgetown, Guyana, the woman had never been in trouble a day in her life. But now, as the Suffolk County police were telling the story, this soft-spoken mother of three was deep inside a felony insurance scam.
"The police came to my house and arrested me," she was recalling at week's end, having trouble even forming those crazy words.
"They put me in handcuffs. They took my picture. They took my fingerprints."
For a quiet, law-abiding person, it's impossible to describe how upsetting such an experience can be.
"My mother was devastated," she said. "I thought I was going to lose my job. I've never gotten in trouble or anything like that before. I had to try and explain it all to my children. They are 10, 7 and 6. The smallest child doesn't understand. But the older two do. They were worried for me. They thought of Clyde as a father."
Ah, yes, Clyde.
Like so many bad stories for decent women these days, this one goes back to a guy.
It was the summer of 2000, when Luanne's boyfriend, Clyde, wrecked his beloved motorcycle. He took the bike to a repair shop in Lindenhurst on Long Island. Four thousand dollars to fix the bike, he was told.
When Clyde explained he didn't have that kind of money, the man at the bike shop said there might be a way to get the bike fixed for free. For free? It was a simple-sounding insurance scam.
Another man would claim he'd hit Clyde's motorcycle with his car. He and Clyde would sign some insurance forms.
Of course, the insurance company paid off right away.
The "hitter" kept $1,500 for his trouble. Clyde signed the rest of the money over to the bike shop, where the bike was promptly repaired, costing Clyde not a dime.
But why stop there? The man at the bike shop wondered if Clyde might like to become a "hitter" himself? He could earn an easy $1,500.
But Clyde didn't own a car. No problem, the man at the bike shop said. He could borrow one.
And he did, from his unwitting girlfriend, Luanne Chase-Lindie, who happened to be off visiting relatives in Atlanta and knew nothing about any of this.
Really, what was there to know?
No actual wreck, just a few scammed forms to an insurance company, listing Luanne's car as suffering major damage. The forms went in. The check went out. The money was split. Luanne was none the wiser. Next thing she knew, cops were at her door. The charge was insurance fraud. The possible sentence was up to four years in state prison.
Her case, it turned out, was part of a giant insurance scam, based in Suffolk County. One hundred and forty people were arrested in the first round. The total is now up around 400. District Attorney Thomas Spota had a special squad, aggressively pursuing this case and others like it.
"Many of these people had never been in trouble for anything," said Bob Clifford, spokesman for the Suffolk County D.A. "They bought the line that they could make some easy money filling out some forms and putting in for a claim. It was a very easy line for people to believe. They believed, 'Oh, everybody does it.' They said, 'Sure, I'd like to make a quick grand or fifteen hundred dollars just to file this paperwork.'
That kind of thinking, Clifford said, adds $300 to $600 a year to every New York driver's insurance rates.
If Luanne would just plead guilty, she was told, and admit she was part of the fraud, she could get off with probation and promise to pay the full $8,300 back.
That sounded better than four years in prison, of course. "But I'm not guilty," she told her lawyer and her investigator. "I can't say I was."
"I believed her," Renfroe said. "No way was this woman involved in any insurance scam."
"I don't think she'd even cross the street against the light," marveled Grix, the private eye.
And these two believers joined forces and went about the slow business of proving Luanne clean.
Court appearance after court appearance.
Witness interview after witness interview.
And on Friday, two years after the case began, the Suffolk County district attorney's office agreed to drop all charges against one famously law-abiding mother of three.
"Sometimes, we have happy endings," Chris Renfroe said.
"I feel like I have my life back," Luanne Chase-Lindie agreed. Wisely, she said, it's a life without Clyde.
