A 51-year-old Kent man who raced BMX-style bicycles while claiming he was too disabled to work stands accused of defrauding the state.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Washington Attorney General\u2019s Office filed first-degree theft charges against Tony T. Perry Sr. Perry, 51, is scheduled to appear on the felony charge in Thurston County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to a state Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) media release on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Perry\u2019s accused of misrepresenting his physical abilities to (L&I) to receive more than $14,000 in wage-replacement payments from January 2012 to August 2013, according to charging papers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Perry started racing BMX bicycles as an amateur in January 2012, eventually competing throughout the Pacific Northwest and Nevada, according to the results of an L&I investigation. BMX racing is an off-road, physically demanding bicycle competition typically held on dirt race courses with hills requiring riders to jump in the air.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The case investigator witnessed Perry compete in two races, and found numerous Facebook posts about Perry\u2019s racing activities, charging papers said. In a post about a May 2012 race, Perry described how he crashed and injured his ribs \u00ad\u2212 but told L&I he hurt himself at home that day due to a fall caused by his injured knee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In an interview with L&I in September 2013, Perry admitted racing, but said it was no different than riding a bike on a neighborhood street, charging papers said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After receiving a summary of L&I\u2019s investigative findings in March, Perry\u2019s physician told an L&I investigator he would have ended Perry\u2019s wage-replacement payments as of January 2012 had he known about his physical abilities.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Perry began receiving workers\u2019 compensation benefits in October 2001, when he strained himself lifting a heavy box, causing knee and other injuries, while working in grounds maintenance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The charge against Perry resulted from an L&I investigation that started with an anonymous tip. L&I pursues all tips of suspected fraud. Report tips at www.Fraud.Lni.wa.gov or call 1-888-811-5974.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 51-year-old Kent man who raced BMX-style bicycles while claiming he was too disabled to work stands accused of defrauding the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11312"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}