November 17, 2006 Friday 4:18 PM GMT
Five Sentenced for Lying to Get Derailment Payments
LAFAYETTE La. (AP) - Five people who admitted lying about being in Eunice to get part of a $65 million settlement stemming from a train derailment have been put on probation for three years.
The five were among a group of 13 people charged with mail fraud last year while claiming to have been visiting the city in May 2000 when rail cars carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and forced evacuation of most of Eunice.
Most of the group claimed they were exposed to chemical vapors while attending a family reunion, but investigators confirmed that the event never happened, prosecutors said.
More than 12,000 people filed claims in the class-action lawsuit against Union Pacific Railroad Co. Attorneys overseeing the settlement tagged a few hundred claims as suspicious and more than 200 were eventually thrown out.
The twelve accused of mail fraud had filed appeals of their initial denial. Sentenced to three years of probation by U.S. District Judge Tucker Melancon on Thursday were Tambra R. Bright, Karen E. Cole, Angela Ashley, Lillie Derry Townsend and her husband, Henry Townsend. All pleaded guilty to a count of mail fraud.
Three other defendants were put on three years of probation earlier this month.