Harvey Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Stage Automobile Accident in Order to Defraud Insurance and Trucking Companies

US Attorney’s Office – Eastern District of Louisiana, Jan. 12, 2022

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today that DONISESHA LEE (“DONISHA LEE”), age 30, of Harvey, Louisiana, entered a plea of guilty today to Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, before United States District Court Judge Sarah S. Vance arising out of a staged automobile accident with a tractor-trailer occurring in New Orleans.

According to today’s guilty plea, DONISHA LEE, along with her co-defendants, Dewayne Coleman (“Coleman”), Erica Lee Thompson (“Erica Lee”), Aisha Thompson (“Thompson”), Passenger A, and Donreion Lee, conspired to commit mail fraud in connection with a staged accident with their former co-defendant, occurring on September 6, 2017.  Today’s guilty plea brings the total number of defendants convicted in “Operation Sideswipe” to thirty (30).

DONISHA LEE admitted that on September 6, 2017, on the I-10 near the Almonaster exit, she was a passenger in Erica Lee’s 2015 RAV4 being driven by their former co-defendant, when he intentionally crashed into a tractor-trailer owned by Averitt Express.  After the staged accident, the driver exited the RAV4 and told Erica Lee to get behind the wheel of the RAV4 to make it appear that Erica Lee was driving the vehicle at the time of the staged accident.  The defendants contacted the NOPD and falsely claimed that Erica Lee was the driver at the time of the collision.  Passenger A falsely claimed to the NOPD that she was Thompson.

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