Phila. man gets 87 months in insurance scam

A Philadelphia tow-truck driver was sentenced yesterday to 87 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme with a corrupt Philadelphia police officer in which they faked dozens of accidents and vandalism incidents, submitted fraudulent insurance claims, and bilked insurance companies out of more than $400,000.

Jerry Blassengale Jr, 36, pleaded guilty in July to 11 counts of mail fraud and an additional count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court.

He was also found guilty during a jury trial in August of an assault on a federal law enforcement official while fleeing arrest.

The insurance scheme involved former police officer Drexel Reid Jr., who was assigned to the Highway Patrol and Traffic Unit.

According to court testimony, Blassengale recruited friends and acquaintances to stage accidents or claim their cars had been stricken by vandals.

Reid would write up false police reports in support of the faked damages, and Blassengale would coach the participants on what to tell their insurance companies.

Not every participant wanted to continue with the scheme, according to court records. During a plea hearing, Blassengale acknowledged that at least once, he threatened people to continue in the scam when they wanted to back out.

During his sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Bruce W. Kauffman, Blassengale expressed remorse for his role in the insurance fraud.

"I accept responsibility for my foolish conduct in aiding and abetting to commit fraud," Blassengale said.

But he hotly debated the facts that led to his conviction on the assault charge. During a 20-minute screed, Blassengale called the investigating agents "repulsive liars" and claimed he had been "railroaded" by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek.

"I have no sorrow or remorse for the alleged assault on a federal officer because it never happened," he said.

Before he was taken into custody on June 4, 2007, Blassengale led police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 95 that weaved in and out of traffic at speeds greater than 100 m.p.h.

Blassengale did not dispute that. But a federal jury found him guilty of purposely crashing his car into a vehicle carrying a detective and an FBI agent after the detective signaled him to pull over.

Blassengale's car only came to a stop after it rear-ended the car carrying the law enforcement officers. Those events led to the assault charge.

Blassengale maintained there was no proof the incident had occurred.

In addition to the prison term, Blassengale was ordered to pay restitution of $446,191 and was ordered to complete three years of supervised release.

Reid is awaiting sentencing on nine counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion, to which he pleaded guilty in July.