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Former California Prison Guard Convicted of Lying about Injury Sustained at Sex Club

In March 2012, an ex-prison guard and his wife were convicted of attempted perjury for trying to swindle California’s workers’ compensation system by claiming that injuries the guard sustained at a San Francisco sex club were job-related.

On April 27, 2008, John Alfonzo Smiley, 47, then employed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), was shot in the back outside a swinger’s club in San Francisco. Smiley and his wife, Cynthia Ann Biasi-Smiley, 38, were at the club, called Twist, to engage in sex with another couple.

According to Smiley, the other couple included a parolee who recognized him as a bus driver in the CDCR’s transportation unit. That parolee, Smiley claimed, shot him and left him paralyzed. The parolee who allegedly shot him was never arrested.

Smiley filed for workers’ compensation, claiming the shooting was related to his job duties as a CDCR employee, which would make him eligible for benefits worth $2.44 million. His wife supported his version of events related to the shooting.

However, the prosecutor in the workers’ comp fraud case, Sacramento County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Kelly Mulcahy, said Smiley was shot due to a dispute regarding his behavior during the sex session with the other couple – specifically whether he was using a condom properly. The jury could not reach verdicts on fraud-related charges, but convicted Smiley and his wife of attempted perjury. Each faces up to three years and eight months in prison; they have not yet been sentenced.

“[I]t was very apparent that the defendants misrepresented what caused their injuries,” said Mulcahy. “It’s all about the money.”

Prior to the trial, Smiley had been fired from his CDCR job.

Source: Sacramento Bee

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