Plaintiff in 2011 police suit charged with fraud

June 26--A man who filed a successful lawsuit against the city of Oneonta in 2011 was charged with insurance fraud Thursday following a yearlong investigation, Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl said.

Bradford Shanks, 43, now of New Lisbon, was arrested Thursday morning along with Laura Canfield, 28, identified as Shanks' "significant other," according a media release also from the Otsego County District Attorney.

It said the following: Shanks, formerly of Oneonta, was charged with third degree grand larceny, a class D felony, after Shanks filed falsified income tax returns to receive more than $35,100 in no-fault lost wage benefits following a 2009 automobile accident.

Shanks and Canfield were charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation, and unlicensed growing of cannabis, a misdemeanor, according to the release.

The city of Oneonta reached a $135,000 settlement in 2011 for a civil rights lawsuit Shanks filed after he was allegedly beaten by a police officer, after he fled a traffic stop near the Oneonta police station. The grand jury case against the officer involved in the case, Michael Breen, was closed when Shanks failed to appear at a Jan. 17, 2012, hearing. In late 2011, Breen was fired from the police department after he was found guilty of administrative charges by an outside hearing officer.

Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl said Thursday his office got involved a couple of months ago after an insurance company alerted a state agency of possible insurance fraud. Muehl said he presented the case to a grand jury earlier this month because one of the witnesses was from out of town.

During execution of an arrest warrant at the couple's residence at 194 Santoro Road in Garrattsville, investigators from the state Department of Financial Services, Otsego County District Attorney's Office and Otsego County Sheriff's Office along with members of the Sheriff's Office Special Enforcement Bureau, discovered seven marijuana plants, four grams of processed marijuana and drug paraphernalia, the release said.

The couple were issued appearance tickets on the marijuana charges, returnable July 8 in New Lisbon Town Court.

Shanks was arraigned in the insurance charges by Otsego County Court Judge Brian D. Burns, and remanded to the Otsego County jail on $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond. He is scheduled to reappear July 10. If convicted, he would face up to seven years in prison.

Prosecution of insurance fraud should serve as a deterrence to others, Muehl said, adding that it's one of the reasons insurance can be so expensive.

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