By Steven Ward
The Advocate
Copyright 2007 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
GONZALES, La. — A state prosecutor Tuesday called former Donaldsonville Fire Chief Kirk P. Landry a liar who “altered” records to get his city a better fire insurance rating.
Landry’s defense attorney fired back that Landry merely “corrected” those records, followed the rules and did nothing illegal.
Those were the two positions taken by opposing attorneys delivering opening statements in Landry’s insurance fraud trial.
Landry, 49 and retired, was arrested by the Louisiana State Police Insurance Fraud Unit in March 2004 on accusations that he changed fire report records in a scheme to gain a lower fire insurance rating for Donaldsonville.
A change in the rating would translate into lower fire insurance premiums for residents and businesses.
Landry is being tried in 23rd Judicial District Court on one count of insurance fraud, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison or a $5,000 fine or both if the accused is convicted.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Street, who is prosecuting Landry, told the jury that Landry changed records on 27 fire reports in September 2001.
Landry’s changes doubled the manpower that actually was sent to structure fires as well as inflated the number of firetrucks that went to those fires, Street charged.
Those altered reports, Street said, were sent to the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana, the state organization that rates fire departments based on firefighting capabilities and issues fire ratings partly based on those reports.
The scale of the fire ratings issued to fire departments range from 1 to 10, with 1 representing the best possible fire protection. Insurance companies in turn base the cost of their coverages on the fire ratings.
But Landry’s defense attorney, Karl Koch, said Landry did nothing criminal and only followed the instructions of expert consultants hired by the city to assist Landry with filling out the reports that the Insurance Association uses in determining fire ratings.
Koch said if three firetrucks were sent out to a structure fire and the fire turned out to be smaller in scale than originally thought, two trucks could be canceled and sent back to the department.
However, for the purposes of filing reports with the Insurance Association for fire ratings, Landry was allowed by the Insurance Association rules, the consultant told him, to take credit for three trucks at the scene even though two were sent back, Koch said.
Because each fire truck is manned by a certain number of firefighters, Landry was able, Koch said, to correct the fire reports to get credit for the original manpower and firetrucks sent out according to the Insurance Association rules.
“And that’s all Landry did here,” Koch said.
“Landry did not make a mistake. He just did his job,” Koch said.
Street asserted that Landry lied on the reports about manpower and trucks at structure fires.