Eight Charged With Auto Insurance Fraud

Nov. 3--Investigators from an auto insurance fraud task force in Lawrence, Mass., say participants in phony crashes allegedly set up by Leo Lopez usually felt safe.

But a two-car "paper crash" at the intersection of Route 125 and Interstate 495 south near the Haverhill, Mass., and Plaistow line on July 15, 2002, is the latest case against Lopez.

He faces auto insurance fraud charges along with seven other people who received treatment for phony injuries.

"With Leo Lopez, it was probably easier to persuade passengers and drivers to get involved because there was seldom a threat of injury," Lawrence police Detective Sgt. Michael Simard said.

"Most of the accidents he orchestrated were all on paper. So, there wasn't any staged collision where somebody might get hurt," said Simard, the department's lead investigator on the task force.

Lopez, 28, of 69 Abbott St., Lawrence, was already facing three separate grand jury indictments when arrested again.

The seven people charged along with Lopez were treated at Kaplan or Haverhill Family Chiropractic.

The operators of those clinics -- Michael Kaplan, of Hampstead and Troy L. Wheelwright, 40, of Amesbury, Mass. -- were indicted along with Lopez earlier this year as part of a grand jury investigation initiated by the state attorney general's office.

This case brings to 341 the number of individuals charged with auto insurance fraud in Lawrence's five-year-old crackdown.

Lopez is scheduled to be retried later this month on a case being prosecuted by the state attorney general's office after a Superior Court jury couldn't reach a verdict several weeks ago.

"Leo Lopez is the most notorious, the most brazen and the most prolific of the runners we've investigated," Simard said of the former Haverhill man. Investigators have identified him as "a major player" who got paid by area lawyers and chiropractors to recruit victims of phony crashes in a cottage industry that once cost insurers millions of dollars a year in Lawrence.

Lopez, a former van driver and chiropractic assistant for Kaplan Chiropractic Corp. on Sutton Street in North Andover, is considered the mastermind of at least a dozen accidents being probed by the task force, according to investigators.

"His name surfaces quite a bit in our investigations of a number of accidents," said Lawrence police Chief John Romero, who assembled the task force in fall 2003 after a 65-year-old Lawrence great-grandmother died in a staged car crash that investigators said she helped plan to scam insurance companies.

"It appears that he's made a career of doing this, This guy was a big-time runner. Runners in general made large amounts of money on the backs of the residents of Lawrence by choreographing these frauds," Romero said.

Criminal charges stem from a probe initiated by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, which has several investigators working with a handful of Lawrence police detectives on the task force.

The aunt of Lopez's wife -- Elsa Salazar, 37, of 67 Franklin St., Lawrence -- confessed to police after her arrest that the crash never happened.

Salazar initially claimed she drove a 1989 Acura into the rear of 1997 Plymouth after it made a quick stop for other cars. She told investigators she signed a fake accident report prepared by Lopez as a favor to him, and also to make some money.

Investigators also received a statement from the Acura's owner, who has not been charged. He told police Lopez paid him $700 for use of his car registration in order to set up the bogus claim.

Also charged with auto insurance fraud were:

Jose De la Cruz, 35, of 13 Melrose Ave., Lawrence, driver of the Plymouth. He claimed his car was rear-ended and denied any wrongdoing.

Lissette Matos, 33, of 26 Inman St., passenger in the Plymouth. She denied any wrongdoing.

Violeta De la Cruz, 38, of 102 Chester St., Lawrence, passenger in the Plymouth. She denied any wrongdoing.

Isidro Royer, 43, formerly of Lawrence, a passenger in the Plymouth. He is still being sought by police who believe he's living in Florida.

Candida Santiago, 55, formerly of Lawrence, a passenger in the Acura. She remains at large and is believed to be living in New Jersey,

Angie Abrams, 36, formerly of Lawrence, a passenger in the Acura. Police believe she's living in Florida.