Fraud case dismissal is upheld on appeal

Potentially careerending charges of insurance fraud against a San Francisco man, who allegedly tried to cheat an auto insurance company out of $360 in a case that lasted more than four years, were properly dismissed by a judge “in the furtherance of justice,” a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Prosecutors said the defendant, identified as S.M., filed an insurance claim in March 2011 after someone broke into his parked car and stole his laptop computer. He then discovered that his policy did not cover the loss, prosecutors said, and bought a policy from another company the same day, falsely declaring he had not suffered any thefts or vandalism in the previous five years. The next day he filed a claim with the new company for the break-in.

The insurer learned the truth and refused to pay the $360, and the district attorney’s office charged S.M. with multiple crimes for submitting a fraudulent insurance claim.

The case lingered in Superior Court for more than four years, with both sides requesting continuances. In December 2015, over prosecutors’ objections, Judge Bruce Chan dismissed the three felony charges and three misdemeanors, which he called an “unjust prosecution.”

Chan noted that S.M., a father of two who was in his 50s, had no previous criminal record and had worked for more than 20 years in electronic security, a career that would be damaged or destroyed by a fraud conviction. The prolonged prosecution was “completely disproportionate to the conduct he may or may not have engaged in,” the judge said.

District Attorney George Gascón’s office appealed, arguing that the dismissal harmed efforts to stop insurance fraud. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said Wednesday that Chan had reasonably used his authority under a state law that allows a court to dismiss charges “in the furtherance of justice.”

Presiding Justice Ignazio Ruvolo wrote the 3-0 decision.

Defense lawyer Doron Weinberg said the ruling should be a “strong statement to the district attorney’s office,” which had insisted on taking the case to trial unless S.M. pleaded guilty to a felony.

Gascón’s office could not be reached for comment.