A 56-year-old former Washington State meter reader who claimed she was so traumatized from a workplace dog attack that she fainted at the sight of dogs has pleaded guilty in a workers’ compensation fraud case.
According to a Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) news release, a department investigation found that despite insisting her PTSD and dog phobia were so severe she couldn’t work, Linda Lashell Jordan had six dogs, including some she was fostering or advertising for sale, at her southwest Washington home.
Jordan recently pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted theft of state workers’ compensation benefits, a gross misdemeanor offense. Wahkiakum County Superior Court Judge Heidi Heywood sentenced Jordan to 30 days of jail and allowed her to serve it under electronic home monitoring.
“This is clearly a case of someone abusing the workers’ comp system,” said Celeste Monahan, assistant director of L&I’s Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards division. “It’s not a victimless crime. She was taking money from the fund that helps workers who really are seriously injured on the job and need support to heal and get back to work.”
The L&I investigation determined that Jordan took more than $162,000 in wage-replacement payments from September 2016 to October 2019 while claiming she could not work.
The Washington Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case based on L&I’s investigation. L&I is seeking repayment from Jordan.
While working as a meter reader for the Pacific County Public Utility District in 2007, a dog bit Jordan’s right arm, causing serious injury. According to the news release, over the next several years, she filed injury claims to L&I and maintained she couldn’t risk working or even driving a vehicle because she might encounter a dog.
Jordan’s medical providers confirmed she couldn’t work due to her on-the-job injuries. In 2014, for example, her doctor confirmed she fainted whenever she saw dogs and could not return to her job, according to charging papers.
In 2018, when a claim manager suspected something was amiss, an undercover L&I investigator visited Jordan at her home and found that she had three French bulldogs and three boxers, who, according to the news release, “were swarming around her and she didn’t faint or look scared.” Jordan told the investigator she and her husband had been rescuing and fostering boxers for 30 years and warned him that one of the dogs might bite, charging papers said.
The investigation also found that Jordan advertised dogs for sale on Facebook using her maiden name and her husband’s name. And although her health care provider advised her not to drive in case she saw a dog and fainted, investigators saw Jordan driving nine times in 2018 and 2019.
When shown evidence, a psychiatrist who once treated Jordan changed Jordan’s previous diagnosis from post-traumatic stress disorder and dog phobia to malingering — pretending an illness or injury to avoid work — charging papers said. The psychiatrist found that Jordan could return to work as a meter reader as early as September 2016.
Photo: A Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) investigations photo shows Linda Lashell Jordan with two of her boxers, which were among a half-dozen dogs she was fostering or selling at her home in 2018. (Courtesy of L&I)
Topics Workers' Compensation Washington
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