Court Rejects Challenge to Jury Instructions, Testimony in Claimant Fraud Case

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found nothing wrong with jury instructions or allegedly prejudicial testimony in upholding the conviction of a former postal worker in Texas who was found guilty in 2018 of submitting more than $46,000 in phony travel reimbursement claims. A federal jury convicted Lisa Y. Coffman on one count of making false statements to obtain federal workers’ compensation benefits and one count of theft of public money. She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $46,310 in restitution. She appealed the conviction, arguing that the jury ...