WA meter worker pleads guilty to faking dog trauma to get wage-replacement payments
Aug. 23—A Wahkiakum County judge sentenced a former meter reader to 30 days of electronic home monitoring for fraudulently taking workers’ compensation benefits.
Linda Lashell Jordan, 56-year-old Grays River resident, pleaded guilty on Aug. 19 to second-degree theft of state workers’ compensation benefits, a gross misdemeanor offense, according to Wahkiakum Superior Court records.
This case resulted from a Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) investigation that found she faked being traumatized by a workplace dog attack to defraud the state, according to an L&I news release.
An undercover investigator reportedly found she had six dogs at her home, including some she was fostering and advertising for sale.
All the while, she was insisting that she could not work because she was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dog phobia. This claim reportedly stemmed from a 2007 incident in which a dog bit her right arm while she worked for the Pacific County Public Utility District.
Based on her claim, the release says Jordan took more than $162,000 in wage-replacement payments from September 2016 to October 2019.
Celeste Monahan, assistant director of L&I’s Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards division, called this a clear case of someone abusing the state’s workers’ compensation system.
“It’s not a victimless crime,” Celeste said in the news release. “She was taking money from the fund that helps workers who really are seriously injured on the job and need support to heal and get back to work.”
Judge Heidi Heywood sentenced Jordan to 30 days in jail, but the release says she was allowed to serve her time under electronic home monitoring. L&I says it wants Jordan to repay the money she took as well.
How did she get caught?
L&I opened an investigation into Jordan in 2018 after a claim manager “began to suspect something was amiss in her case,” the release says.
An investigator reportedly visited Jordan’s home, then in Cathlamet, under the guise of being interested in purchasing some bricks she advertised for sale. While at the home, the investigator observed three French bulldogs and three boxers who swarmed Jordan.
The dogs did not seem to negatively affect Jordan in the investigator’s eyes, according to the release. Jordan reportedly told the investigator that she and her husband and been rescuing and fostering boxers for three decades and warned that one of the dogs may bite.
She also allowed the investigator to take her photo with two of the boxers at the home, the release says.
Additionally, investigators found Jordan advertised dogs for sale on Facebook using her maiden name and her husband’s name. She was also observed driving nine times between 2018 and 2019, which went against the medical advice she previously received.
Prior to this, the release says her medical providers had stated she couldn’t work or drive due to her on-the-job injuries and because she fainted whenever she saw dogs.
In August 2019, the investigator showed Jordan’s former psychiatrist the evidence they collected and the psychiatrist changed her diagnosis from PTSD and dog phobia to malingering, which means pretending to be ill or injured to avoid work.
This story was originally published August 23, 2024, 12:00 PM.