Booth
People v. Booth
Opinion
Opinion
Hitchens, J.
William J. Booth was convicted by a jury of one count of presenting a false and fraudulent insurance claim (former Ins. Code, § 1871.1, subd. (a)(1)) and one count of preparing a writing in support of a fraudulent insurance claim. (Id., § 1871.1, subd. (a)(5)). He was given a two-year suspended sentence, ordered to pay a restitution fine and placed on supervised probation.
On appeal Booth claims error in the refusal of two defense-proffered modifications to standard jury instructions defining the elements of the crimes charged. We affirm.
I. Background
On May 22,1992 Booth was involved in a rear-end collision in which his 1991 Mercedes was struck from behind by another vehicle. Booth was driving and his girlfriend, Wendy Govan, was in the passenger seat. Neither Booth nor Govan asked for an ambulance or complained of being injured at the time, nor did either receive medical treatment for injuries resulting from the accident.
Booth filed a claim for personal injuries with his own insurance company, Liberty Mutual, which was eventually settled for S1.OOO. The driver responsible for the accident was insured with Farmers Insurance Group (Farmers) which paid for the…