Former radio talk-show host found guilty of insurance fraud

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter
posted Feb 2 1.42 pm

Former KIRO radio talk show host Mike Webb was found guilty of insurance fraud this morning and sentenced to 240 hours of community service.

King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector issued the verdict following an abbreviated trial, in which she reviewed police reports and documents from Webb's first trial, which ended in a mistrial. Webb opted for the abbreviated trial rather than be tried before a jury.

Webb worked for KIRO-AM (710) radio for 10 years and hosted a liberal late-night show before he was fired weeks after being charged with the felony in December 2005.

Prosecutors and police say that Webb filed a fraudulent insurance claim with Geico insurance after a traffic accident on June 28, 2005, when his Lexus was struck by another vehicle driven by an uninsured driver near the University Bridge in Seattle. During Webb's first trial, Geico investigators testified that it wasn't until the day after the accident that Webb purchased an insurance policy online from their company.

Webb, however, testified that he believed he had purchased insurance from the company about five weeks before the accident. He suggested a computer glitch might be at fault. He also said he thought he was pursuing the claim under the other driver's policy.

The first trial ended in a mistrial in September after a judge determined the jury had been tainted by seeing Webb handcuffed by police following an outburst outside the courthouse.

According to a Seattle Police Department report, police found Webb acting "irrational and irate" on James Street and Second Avenue after testimony in his trial concluded. A woman told police that Webb had threatened to kill himself if found guilty and that he had access to a gun in his house, the report stated.

When an officer contacted Webb on the street and asked if he would allow police to retrieve the gun from his home, Webb said no, according to the report.

Webb was not arrested, but he was handcuffed and taken to Harborview Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation, according to Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel.

After the incident, Judge Spector learned that several jurors had seen or heard about the incident, and ordered the jury to stop deliberating and go home for the day.

Spector later questioned half the jurors individually about what they saw. Five knew some details about the incident, though most or all mistakenly believed Webb had been apprehended for jaywalking. A sixth juror believed an attorney in the case had been caught jaywalking.

When interviewed, the jurors told Spector said they thought they could put the incident aside and deliver a fair verdict. But Webb's attorney, Mark Larranaga, asked the judge to grant a mistrial. "It's tainted more than a third of the jurors," he said of the police incident.

Courtroom details
(courtesy Seattle radio blog "Blatherwatch")

Mike Webb sentenced: felonious punk
                                                                                          
It didn't take long, once justice got up on its feet. In the end, not even Warren Buffett could change Mike Webb's legal destiny.

In a bench trial before Judge Julie Spector, the former talk host and liberal KIRO night time personality  finally got a verdict and sentencing for his bungling, nearly transparent attempt to defraud Geico Insurance into paying for a car accident he'd
had with an uninsured driver before he bought a policy.

Prosecutor Nancy Balin called it an "attempted theft." Judge Spector said, said the evidence clearly showed that Webb "blatantly and with arrogance" defrauded the insurance company.

(After his completed trial in September was declared a mistrial, after a melee in front of the courthouse that landed Webb handcuffed in a police car to a Harborview rubber room).

This time, both parties agreed to a "stipulated trial, with the facts of the case presented in the original trial, and heard by Judge Spector and considered without a jury or re-calling witnesses.

The prosecutor and the defense attorney, Mark Larranaga each made a statement and brief rebuttals; the judge made her judgment shortly thereafter.

Her verdict: guilty as charged. "Only one person made things difficult for Mr. Webb," she said, "and that it was Mr. Webb."

She found Webb's credibility, "totally lacking," and went through a laundry list- a "continuum of falsification," of bank records and lies told investigators by "no other than Mr. Webb."

Webb, 51, finally humbled, stood at the bench before the court with his attorney, as his mental health and his future was discussed. After the mistrial, he'd been ordered into 30 days of mental health inpatient treatment.

(Famously touchy about having his picture taken- in the first trial, Webb ran out of the courtroom when he saw a Seattle Times photographer aiming a lens at him. Today he didn't freak as a P-I photog sat in the jury box snapping frontals).

Balin asked for 60 days jail time with half in community service and the rest in home detention or custody; plus fines and restitution. Standard sentencing is 0-365 days in jail with a 5-year max).

Larranaga told the court that Webb's clean criminal record and that since the crime wasn't all that serious, he should get no jail time. He also lauded Webb's promulgation of "political, social awareness, community awareness," while on the radio. That opportunity, he said- and his very livelihood were finished- even though, he admitted, much of that is "due to his own actions."
( Mike was never involved in the community, if he had Larranaga would have trotted out the specifics. As for political activism, local progressives don't know him...)

Balin noted that it was indeed a serious crime- a felony; and his actions were willful and deliberate as hell.

The judge then asked Webb if he wanted to address the court before she sentenced him.

He, of course did, and speaking in an uncharacteristically soft voice, he said he was, "Mystified and overwhelmed. I didn't do it!"

Webb acknowledged that he is "guilty of arrogance," but implied if he were to do fraud, he would have done it better. "I can add," he said. (This was in reference to the bad job his novice forger did falsifying bank documents that he stupidly gave Geico and the cops. Balin showed that the columns didn't add up, the type was all hinky, and the fonts were wrong and mismatched).

Web repeated his claims (never argued court by his attorney) that someone- a kid, a blogger (guess who!) who "had it out for me, interrupted my Internet" and framed him. "It's the elephant in the room," he said, "The bloggers scoff at it, but no one has ever addressed it in court."

In a lighter moment and one that pointed up how truly bizarre and out of touch Webb is was when Balin read a letter that Webb wrote tWarren Buffett  who is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway of which GEICO is a subsidiary. He complained to the Omaha billionaire that his life has been "turned upside down" because of all the Geico employees who testified against him. Prevailing upon Buffett for we're not sure what, he wrote, "I've never asked for or received a dime from Geico."

Judge Spector, unmoved, gave Webb two days credit for time already spent in jail, then sentenced him to 30 days with the time to be served in community service in a non-profit such as the Food Bank.

He was fined $1000; assigned the day;'s court cost of $443 plus an additional fee of $100; $500 for the victim compensation.

There will be a restitution hearing later to determine his part in paying for the original trial which included over $1100 for the police investigation; and over $10,000 for flying in and housing the Geico employees who were witnesses.

Webb is to continue with his long term mental health treatment and follow all treatment recommendations, including medications. This will be monitored by the court.

As a convicted felon, he'll lose his civil rights- including voting rights, and gun wnership for five years. (Knowing his past threats to others and himself, and his bragadaccio with his licensed-to-carry gun, the judge inquired if he had any guns. He said he did not, he'd gotten rid of it. "This is outrageous," he said angrily, I never used that gun!"

With that, the trial ended;  Mike gave BlatherWatch the finger on his way out- a gesture of hope and reconciliation.

Another radio jock snaps. Career down the tube due to ego and mental issues that should level him off when perscribed. Not that I would know.