STOCKTON -- Former Tracy police Officer Jenny Moore pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony charges of workers' compensation and insurance fraud in San Joaquin County Superior Court, stemming from a March 2003 on-duty injury she said forced her into long-term disability.

"I can't believe it's come to this. I'm as grieved and hurt as I possibly could be," Moore, a former president of the Tracy Police Officers Association, said moments before her plea. "It's beyond words to describe the depth of sorrow I have for the department I love and the city I grew up in ... that it has gone to this level."

Moore, a former athlete who was diagnosed with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, said she suffered a lower-back injury in January 2002 when she jumped on a suspect while in pursuit. She re-injured the area more than a year later while restraining a suspect.

According to her lawyer, Lawrence Bohm of Sacramento, a magnetic resonance imaging screen, performed after the second incident, showed degeneration in three lumbar vertebrae. Moore underwent disc-replacement surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, on Oct. 12, 2004.

"They believe Jenny is lying about the extent of her pain. They're claiming she allowed doctors to cut a 6-inch gash in her abdomen and insert metal disks in her spine for financial gain," Bohm said.

Deputy District Attorney Eual Blansett Jr. filed the charges Jan. 21, although an arrest warrant wasn't issued.

Blansett said 11 of the 12 counts Moore faces stem from withholding information or making false statements to her physicians, Dr. Anh Lee and Dr. Randall Armstrong.

"It doesn't make a difference if you tell one doctor the truth; you're supposed to tell everyone the truth all the way through the process," Blansett said.

In August, Moore filed a civil complaint against the city of Tracy for defamation, fraud, disability harassment and violating the Police Officer Procedural Bill of Rights. In a letter dated July 29, Bohm wrote then-City Manager Fred Diaz that Moore was unfairly placed on unpaid administrative leave and had her workers' compensation benefits terminated

About the same time, Bohm wrote, the city stopped paying her insurance premiums and launched an internal investigation into Moore's conduct after the second back injury.

Moore's civil complaint was rejected by the City Council in December.

"It is interesting to note that no charges were filed until we pursued the civil case against the city of Tracy," Bohm said.

Tracy City Attorney Debra Corbett said she couldn't comment on the criminal charges against Moore because it's a county issue.

http://www.recordnet.com/article/20050224/a_news/302249968

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