SILT, COLORADO
Michael Taylor, a Silt, Colorado police officer, has been indicted by a Colorado grand jury in an insurance fraud case.
Michael Taylor also faces charges of felony forgery and felony theft, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
The indictment follows an investigation by the AG’s office, Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
“Insurance fraud is a crime that affects everyone in Colorado by driving up premiums and creating red tape for our hardworking and honest citizens,” Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a news release. “The fact that this alleged criminal behavior was perpetrated by someone who was (a) sworn police officer, who was supposed to protect Coloradans, makes this even more grievous.”
Taylor allegedly made a series of three fraudulent insurance claims from 2010 to 2015 and received tens of thousands of dollars in insurance payments.
In 2015, Taylor allegedly made a false police report, claiming someone had stolen thousands of dollars of jewelry from his wife’s van. He allegedly then made a false insurance claim based upon a false police report and received $9,918 from an insurance company.
===============
Silt officer reported repeated burglaries
Silt police Cpl. Michael Taylor reported that his home was burglarized twice and his wife's car also was broken into, netting more than $60,000 in insurance payments, the state indictment charging him with fraud, theft and forgery alleges.
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has charged 49-year-old Taylor with three counts of insurance fraud, two of theft between $1,000 and $20,000, one of theft between $5,000 and $20,000 and three of forgery. Coffman's office provided the indictment to the Post Independent on Monday. The case is filed in Garfield County.
The charges stem from incidents that began in June 2010, when Taylor first reported that his New Castle home had been burglarized. He reported to New Castle police and his insurance company that a Sentry brand safe, a Rolex watch, a blender and his passport had been stolen.
He was paid more than $4,000 for the Rolex and $100 for the passport, say investigators. But investigators found that he later turned that passport in when he went to get a new one. And the Silt corporal later admitted to investigators that the Rolex was a knockoff for which he'd paid only $2,000, according to the indictment.
Then in May 2012, he again reported to New Castle police that his home was burglarized. Taylor's indictment says that this time he reported as stolen a Sentry safe, his passport and some valuable jewelry, including a diamond ring.
These items of jewelry were also listed on a "valuable personal property" rider in his insurance plan, say investigators. That day he also submitted a claim to his insurance company for the stolen items.
"Taylor was paid for his lost passport, other items, and $50,000.08 for the value of the jewelry items … that he claimed were stolen," according to the indictment. "Later investigation revealed that Taylor had taken [the diamond ring] in to a jeweler shortly before he made his claim, and the ring now had a cubic zirconium stone in it rather than a diamond ring shown in the appraisal, and thus would no longer be worth the $7,500 appraisal Taylor submitted."
After this burglary, Taylor later made a trip to Mexico — using that supposedly stolen passport, say investigators.
However, in the 2012 burglary, not all of his jewelry had been lost; his insurance also covered three other pieces of jewelry that had not been taken, the indictment alleged.
But in September 2015, Taylor went back to his insurance company and said the remaining jewelry covered in his plan was actually stolen in the 2012 burglary, but because the incident reported was from more than a year earlier, that claim was denied, according to investigators.
"The next day Taylor contacted the New Castle Police Department and reported that the same items … had been stolen out of his wife's car," the indictment reads.
Then he submitted another claim, this time saying those items of jewelry had been stolen from the vehicle, and the insurance company paid him nearly $10,000.
Taylor's indictment also lists a few incidents involving checks made out to himself and his now ex-wife, Julie Leaf. On three occasions between 2010 and 2015, Taylor received checks made out to himself and Leaf.
The indictment says that he received these checks, signed his own name, forged her name and deposited the check without her knowledge. Those checks totaled about $1,400.
Ryan Kalamaya, Taylor's defense attorney, said Monday that his client denies any wrongdoing, including any fraud or theft.
As for the checks, Kalamaya said that Taylor and Leaf were going through a divorce at the time, and the checks were insurance payments for the burglarized items, which were plainly Taylor's property.
The two had a joint insurance policy, and it is not in dispute that the payments were for Taylor's personal property, said Kalamaya. Like a lot of married people going through a divorce, he signed her name, but he had no intent to defraud her, said the defense attorney.
The criminal justice system would grind to a halt if forgery charges were filed against every person going through a divorce who signed for joint policies, he said.
The defendant also denies knowing that the ring was a cubic zirconium when he made the insurance claim, said Kalamaya.
The attorney declined to comment on any further specific allegations, but said that Taylor "looks forward to vindicating his name as more evidence is introduced in the judicial process."
Silt Police Chief Mike Kite said Saturday that Taylor was on leave with pay and, following standard procedures, an internal investigation had been launched.
Taylor is scheduled to be in Garfield County district court on Sept. 21 to address bond.
===================
Officer arrested for allegedly scamming tens of thousands through fraudulent insurance claims
by Chad Abraham, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Monday, August 28, 2017
Burglary claims, and alleged fake Rolex, diamond ring, at heart of grand jury indictment
A Silt police officer indicted by a state grand jury was arrested Thursday on multiple felony counts for allegedly lying about his home and car being burglarized and collecting nearly $60,000 in fraudulent insurance claims.
Michael Taylor, 49, corporal of the Silt Police Department and its third-ranking member, faces charges of theft, insurance fraud and forgery after he allegedly filed false reports related to purported burglaries of his New Castle home and the valuation of jewelry that he said had been stolen.
He remains on the force, and is on paid administrative leave and workers compensation leave, the result of having his jaw recently broken during an encounter related to his response to an unrelated domestic-abuse incident.
The grand jury indictment says Taylor, on June 13, 2010, reported to authorities in New Castle that his home had been burglarized while he was out of town.
“He reported many items missing, including a Sentry safe, a Rolex Sea Dweller watch, a KitchenAid blender and his passport,” says the indictment, filed Thursday in Garfield County District Court.
Taylor’s insurance firm paid him just over $4,000 for the Rolex and $100 for his passport, the indictment says.
“Later investigation revealed that Taylor’s passport was never stolen, and he turned it in to the Department of State to obtain a new passport,” wrote Jason Slothouber, an assistant attorney general with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Slothouber is a former prosecutor in the 9th Judicial District where Taylor was advised of the potential charges. “In a later interview with investigators Taylor admitted the Rolex was a knockoff he had purchased for only $2,000 years before in Pennsylvania.”
In May 2012, he told New Castle police that his home “had been burglarized while he was at a movie and his wife was out of town,” the indictment says. “He reported many items stolen, including a Sentry safe, his passport,” and four pieces of valuable jewelry. The latter had been listed on a “valuable personal property” rider with his insurance carrier, United States Automobile Association. Taylor submitted an appraisal for the “diamond ring, showing it had a value of $7,500,” Slothouber wrote.
“Later investigation revealed that Taylor had taken [the ring] to a jeweler shortly before he made his claim, and the ring now had a cubic zirconium stone in it rather than a diamond ring shown in the appraisal … Taylor submitted,” the indictment says. “Investigation revealed Taylor’s passport was never stolen because he used it to travel to Mexico after he made this insurance claim.”
The accused crook, Michael Taylor
Taylor was paid $50,000.08 for the three items of jewelry — he allegedly told investigators three other items had not been stolen — and his supposedly lost passport, according to the indictment.
The Colorado attorney general’s office, in a statement released Friday about the case, said Taylor in 2015 also made a false police report in which he claimed thousands of dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from his wife’s vehicle.
New Castle Police Chief Tony Pagni said Taylor on two occasions reported to his department “people having entered his house.” He was unaware of the recent charges filed by state authorities but said his office consulted with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation about Taylor.
“There were a couple of incidents that we brought to the attention” of other agencies, Pagni said.
Taylor’s attorney, Ryan Kalamaya of Aspen, said his client denies the allegations and looks forward to clearing his name. Taylor had no knowledge of the ring “being cubic zirconium at the time he made the [insurance] claim,” Kalamaya said, adding that he had no specific knowledge about the allegation related to the Rolex.
Taylor is charged with three counts each of theft, insurance fraud and forgery. He is free after posting $5,000 bond and is due in court next month.
“Insurance fraud is a crime that affects everyone in Colorado by driving up premiums and creating red tape for our hardworking and honest citizens,” Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in the press release. “The fact that this alleged criminal behavior was perpetrated by someone who was a sworn police officer, who was supposed to protect Coloradans, makes this even more grievous.”
Silt Police Chief Mike Kite on Sunday said Taylor is on administrative leave and is being paid “as of right now.”
Asked about the allegations, he said “obviously I wasn’t happy, was a little shocked. I was just trying to figure out exactly was going on.”
He declined to say when a decision would be made about Taylor’s future with his department. Kite noted that an internal-affairs investigation will be conducted.
“There is a lot of red tape and protocols to be followed when it comes to this type of thing and when it involves law enforcement officers,” he said.
Kite declined comment on Taylor receiving workers compensation, saying it had nothing to do with the criminal case. Other sources said he is collecting workers compensation.
Taylor joined the Silt Police Department in 2011 after spending most of his career as an officer in Pennsylvania, says the department website.
Chief Judge Michael Martinez of the 2nd Judicial District signed off on the indictment on Thursday. He presides over the state’s ongoing grand jury, 12 citizens who brought the charges against Taylor.