Georgia troopers fired over alleged practice of seeking insurance payouts after chases

ATLANTA (AP) — Three Georgia State Patrol troopers who intentionally bumped vehicles or performed other maneuvers to stop vehicles during pursuits sought payouts afterward from the other driver's insurance, claiming personal injuries to supplement their paychecks, an internal investigation found.

The three troopers and their supervisor were fired for violating Georgia Department of Public Safety policy and ethical standards, the agency said in a news release. The investigation began in January after another trooper said he heard comments and jokes about which recent chases would qualify for a “check" and told his supervisor.

After using their patrol vehicles to stop a chase — including a “precision immobilization technique,” or PIT maneuver — the troopers would send crash reports to a specific private attorney who would file a personal injury claim, the department said. Then the troopers would receive money when an insurance company settled out of court.

Troopers Hunter Waters, Tyler Byrd and Isaiah Francois, all of whom were based in southeast Georgia, participated in the alleged scheme, according to the investigation.

Their supervisor, Sgt. Joseph Curlee, also asked the lawyer to make a claim on his behalf but never received any compensation, investigators found. Curlee told investigators he didn't think the practice violated department policy, adding that he thought the troopers were acting as private citizens.

The Associated Press was unable to find working phone numbers for any of the four troopers, and it wasn't clear whether any of them had hired a lawyer who could comment on their behalf.

Waters, who had been a trooper since February 2018, was the first state trooper to engage in the practice, and he told the other two about it, the investigation found. He told investigators a sheriff's deputy had told him about hiring an attorney to file a claim against a driver's insurer. He said that prompted him to pull crash reports from chases he'd been involved in and to ask the same lawyer to file claims on his behalf.

His claims cited sleeplessness, soreness, anxiety and stress. The lawyer sent eight demand letters for him and, at the time of the investigation, he had received $25,000 for each of three claims with the lawyer taking a third of that payment.

Byrd, who began working for the state patrol in January 2022 told investigators he had received two $25,000 settlements and that the lawyer retained a third. He and the others saw the claims as “a way to make money in addition to (a) paycheck,” he told investigators.

Francois, who had been a trooper since July 2023, had yet to receive any payouts but he was expecting $25,000, minus the lawyer's third, after receiving a signed settlement release from an insurer from the lawyer, according to a summary of the investigative report obtained through an open records request.

Francois told investigators he saw “no ethical violation” for seeking the payments.

Five demand letters sent to insurers on behalf of Byrd and Francois that were provided to investigators don't mention that they were law enforcement officers or that the contact between the vehicles was made as part of their job. No medical bills, claims of care or detailing of injuries is included, but the letters claim the “injuries, pain and suffering, and damages” would exceed the insurance policy limits, the summary says.

The report notes that for each of the five demands the insured drivers were charged with driving under the influence. The troopers told investigators that the lawyer would review their crash reports to determine which ones could be used to file claims.

Department of Public Safety policy says employees can't seek compensation from activity related to their official duties without permission from the commissioner. No commanding officers or the commissioner were ever told about the claim letters, the summary says.

The summary also says the practice appears to amount to a conflict of interest with the troopers' law enforcement duties and that seeking personal compensation for the chases and stops “subjects the entire Department to a damaged reputation, disparaged image, and public distrust.”