A California man has pleaded guilty to attacking a co-worker and then filing a fake insurance claim.
Randal Brown McKay was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation for assault and making a false insurance claim; two other felony charges of making a false insurance claim were dismissed.
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According to the
Orange County Register, the case stems from a 2014 dust-up McKay had with another employee at an Irvine, Calif., plant. Prosecutors said that when McKay arrived for work on June 06, 2014, he began to verbally abuse a forklift driver for not opening the large plastic strips at a door of the plant to allow more air in.
At some point during the argument, McKay jumped in front of the forklift and “dared (the driver) to hit him,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Pamela Leitao said. The driver managed to stop just short of McKay, who nonetheless claimed he was struck by a pallet on the forklift, the
Register reported. Then, as a manager attempted to sort out the argument, the forklift driver – who, Leitao told the
Register, was “a quiet and humble guy and was shaking over all this controversy” – gave a nervous laugh.
“McKay, cursing again, literally runs toward him and runs and leaps and clocks him in the head and tries to knee him,” Leitao told the
Register. McKay then left work, called the Irvine police and reported that he had been assaulted. He later filed a workers’ compensation claim.
The victim, who required eight stitches as a result of the attack and suffered from bouts of blurred vision for months afterward, was initially reluctant to press criminal charges against McKay, Leitao said. However, he was convinced to testify when he learned that McKay was also facing insurance fraud charges.
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