SALEM - Lawyers for popular Lawrence attorney Socrates De La Cruz and Haverhill chiropractor Troy Wheelwright proclaimed they had been exonerated of auto insurance fraud allegations yesterday after a judge dismissed their April indictments.
Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead threw out the indictments after finding that prosecutors had failed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed.
De La Cruz, 34, of Methuen and Wheelwright, 40, of Amesbury were among eight area people indicted by an Essex County Grand Jury that determined they were part of a conspiracy to stage phony accidents to defraud insurance companies.
The indictments stem from an investigation initiated more than two years ago by the state attorney general's office, working with detectives of Lawrence's auto insurance fraud task force and investigators of the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. That probe focused on four separate staged crashes that occurred between October 2002 and February 2003.
Harry Pierre, a spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley said the AG's office was "reviewing our options,'' in the wake of the dismissal.
"The court's decision reflects there was an absence of probable cause, and absence of evidence to charge Mr. De La Cruz with any of the indictments," said his defense attorney Hank Brennan.
"And in consequence, the court through its ruling dismissed all the indictments against Mr. De La Cruz," Brennan said.
Paul Cirel, lawyer for Wheelwright, also welcomed the decision. Wheelright is the owner of Haverhill Family Chiropractic at 606 Broadway, Haverhill.
"We told you he would be vindicated from day one," Cirel said.
Cirel noted that Whitehead had allowed the motions to dismiss because there was never any evidence his client and De La Cruz had committed a crime.
Similar motions filed on behalf of Michael Kaplan, 46, of Hampstead, N.H., operator of Kaplan Chiropractice, 200 Sutton St., North Andover, and Omar Castillo, 35, of Methuen, a runner and former van driver for Kaplan, were denied, Cirel said.
The dismissed indictments could raise defense attorney challenges for others being prosecuted by the attorney general's office. Among those indicted was Andover Attorney James C. Hyde, 56, of Boxford. He is a partner of the Andover law firm of Berger and Hyde.
This week's development represents the biggest setback in the area's five-year crackdown on auto insurance fraud which has led to 345 individuals charged so far.
"I haven't been officially notified, so I really don't have any knowledge," Lawrence Police Chief John Romero said last night.
It was Romero who assembled a fraud task force after the September 2003 death of a 65-year-old great grandmother from Lawrence who was killed in a staged crash that investigators said she helped plan to scam insurance companies.
Brennan, the defense attorney, said it was clear the judge's ruling showed the state attorney general failed to prove allegations against De La Cruz - allegations that the Essex County District Attorney had previously decided not to prosecute.
"Attorney De La Cruz would like to thank all the people throughout the community who have supported him, his friends, his family who believed in him and he would like to thank God for providing him with the guidance and faith that he has had throughout the entire course of this ordeal," Brennan said in an interview last night.
De La Cruz has been held up as a role model ever since he rose from a hard life on the streets of Lawrence to be honored as the 1991 National Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He later worked as a prosecutor in the Essex County District Attorney's Office before going into private practice.
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