Danny Keating, an attorney who was one of the masterminds of the Louisiana staged accident scam, was sentenced Thursday to 32 months in federal prison.
Keating’s sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. He also must pay $657,405.34 in restitution.
Keating was one of the most significant participants in what prosecutors in the office of the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Louisiana dubbed “Operation Sideswipe,” the intentional collisions in the New Orleans area between cars full of participants in the scheme and other vehicles that were usually tractor trailers.
Keating pleaded guilty in June 2021. He is the only attorney involved in the case to cop a plea.
He has been cooperating with prosecutors since then and was a key witness in the successful prosecution of fellow attorneys Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles, who were convicted in March for their roles in the scam. They await sentencing, as earlier sentencing dates were delayed with no new ones set as the two sides work through various motions.
Keating did not testify in the recent mixed bag verdict of several people charged in the murder of Cornelius Garrison, who also had agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in 2020 after he pleaded guilty. Garrison was gunned down in his home soon after. The key murder charges in that case ended up in a hung jury with no new trial scheduled, though there were other convictions.
During the interim between his guilty plea and this week, Keating’s sentencing was frequently scheduled and then delayed before finally occurring Thursday.
According to reporting about the sentencing by NOLA.COM, the online successor to the New Orleans Times Picayune, Keating’s attorney Brian Capitelli had asked U.S. District Court Judge Nanette Brown to sentence Keating to probation, citing Keating’s cooperation with the investigation and the fact that he is in poor health.
Keating not only didn’t get that; he also got more than the two years prosecutors had sought. But his sentence, according to NOLA.COM, is less than federal sentencing guidelines of 57 to 60 months.
According to NOLA.COM, assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Klebba in making his argument to the judge to hold Keating’s sentence to two years said “when faced with a choice, Mr. Keating chose to admit to his misdeeds, forfeit his law license and tell the truth about the crimes that he and others committed.”
Keating must report to prison by January 11, 2027, according to the NOLA.COM reporting.
In its prepared statement announcing the sentencing, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana David Courcelle said in the plea from 2021, Keating admitted to paying fellow ringleader Damian Lebeaud for 31 tractor trailer crashes. Concurrently, Keating represented 77 plaintiffs involved in the staged collisions.
Lebeaud, like Keating, cooperated with prosecutors.His sentencing, like Keating’s, also has been delayed numerous times but is now set for December 3.
Keating’s attorneys on Friday requested that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons send Keating to the minimum-security satellite camp at FCI Beaumont Low. Keating, according to the court filing, suffers from “Common Variable Immunodeficiency (“CVID”) and also has two spinal cord stimulators.”
“Due to CVID and the spinal cord stimulators and his medication requirements, it is requested that he be designated to a Federal Medical Facility,” the filing said. The facility in Beaumont, Texas has the ability to treat those ailments, the attorneys said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, payouts in the staged collisions totaled about $1.5 million for plaintiffs represented by Keating. He kept about $358,000 of that.
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