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Hector Porrata, who pled guilty in Orange County Superior Court to 101 counts of grand theft, insurance fraud, and conspiracy in April of this year, and was formally sentenced on May 7th 2010 to eight years in State Prison, has written to this writer vociferously declaring his wife’s innocence.

Porrata’s wife is Cara Cruz-Thompson, who was sentenced to two years in State Prison, and served enough time to satisfy that sentence with one full year spent in the Orange County Jail.  Cara was released from custody on May 7th 2010. 

“She didn’t take one thin dime, her attorney was right about that,” Hector writes. “I take full responsibility for her involvement.  I am the one to blame.  She is a victim as much as AIG/Matrix, perhaps more so in my opinion.  She needs a break and a head-start to recovery.”

Cara worked as a claims adjuster Supervisor at Matrix Absence Management under Hector Porrata as manager in 2003 and 2004, then she moved over to AIG in Costa Mesa with Hector shortly after Hector resigned from Matrix.  She left AIG in November of 2006 to join Keenan & Associates in Riverside. 

Cara’s attorney, Brian Gurwitz, told this writer by phone on or about March 31st, 2010, “Cara never received a single penny from the criminal conduct Hector and Rene orchestrated.” 

Rene is Rene Montes, who masterminded a shell game by creating W.C. Surgery Centers and WCSC & Associates, two company dba’s which were bogus as legitimate businesses.  W.C. Surgery Centers never performed any surgeries. WCSC & Associates was never authorized by any Medical Provider to negotiate bills and liens for them.

What happened, according to Hector, is that Rene Montes came into his office around June of 2003, when Hector was the claims manager of Matrix Absence Management in Ontario, California.  “Rene was already in full swing at Sedgwick,” Hector writes to me in his June 24th 2010 letter from Wasco, “so he decided to branch out and reach out to me at Matrix where I was just starting out as the manager.” 

What Hector meant, as he explained earlier in this same June 24th letter, is that Rene Montes already had three adjusters at Sedgwick CMS in Riverside, California, paying liens and medical bills to him from the Conagra, Tyco, and from “potentially other accounts”.  Hector further writes, “I also know of a supervisor who worked for the County of San Bernardino who also did business with Rene.” 

I had asked Hector Porrata a set of detailed questions concerning how he got involved in the business with Rene Montes in a letter I wrote to him a week prior and mailed to Wasco.  To my journalistic delight, Hector promptly answered me. 

“Rene presented his scheme in a very matter-of-fact tone.  He very succinctly explained he had started a corporation and he was operating under the guise of negotiating surgery bills from hospitals and surgery centers.  He explained it was “fool proof” as he would always pay the Provider, so they would never come back to the Insurance Company.  He also said that other people had already “used” his services and when he told me their names I was shocked initially.  I told him I would think about it…”

The people who had already used Rene Montes’ services, according to Hector, were all adjusters at Sedgwick in Riverside and that one Supervisor from the County of San Bernardino.  “Sedgwick is covering their butts,” Hector writes, “but there is also a statute of limitations issue with them prosecuting their case.”  Although Hector and Cara were also a supervisor and adjuster, respectively, at Sedgwick CMS in Riverside back in 2002 to 2003, Rene never approached Hector when he was at Sedgwick, and Hector proclaims that at Sedgwick "I had no part in it."

In a phone conversation I had with Hector on the night of June 10th 2010, just the day before he was transferred out of Orange County jail and bussed to Wasco State Prison, I asked him how he could have duped his wife, Cara Cruz-Thompson, into believing WCSC & Associates was a legitimate business.  He answered me very matter-of-factly himself, I suppose much like Rene Montes, “Because I am a manipulator.” 

Hector Porrata has fine literary skills, an excellent vocabulary, and is a superior writer.  He asked me on June 19th 2010 to deliver a letter written by him to John Keenan, the Chairman of the Board of Keenan & Associates, a TPA that administers workers’ compensation, liability and medical claims with offices in Torrance, Riverside, San Jose, and Rancho Cordova. Keenan & Associates is also an insurance broker.

I delivered the letter to John Keenan.  And before I did so, I took the liberty of reading it and copying it.  It is truly a very fine piece of writing.  Its depth of feeling and its brilliance of self-expression are most impressive.  I am bowled over by this letter.  Here is an abridged version of it:

***

Dear Mr. Keenan,

It is only with profound humility, and God’s grace, that I am even attempting to write this letter.

My name is Hector Porrata and I am presently incarcerated at Wasco State Prison in Wasco, California.  You may have heard of my case through the Media.

I am not writing to you, sir, about me.  I’m writing about my wife, Cara Thompson.  She was an employee of yours up until last year when she was arrested with me.

My wife, sir, was entirely innocent of the accusations brought against her.  I truly wish she had the fortitude to go through a trial, but she didn’t, and quite frankly, after being incarcerated (myself) fourteen months, I do not blame her.  Jail, sir, is not a place for any person but much less a woman of Cara’s stature.  She is too refined, cultured, and not to mention God fearing.  She was placed with what many people would term the dregs of our society.  No, sir, it was much too much for her to bear.

My plea to you, sir, is quite simple.  I am humbly requesting that you reinstate my wife with your company.  You see, sir, I took something from my wife I had no right to take.  I took not only her livelihood, I took a part of her identity.  This is something I myself can never give back to her, unless I have the assistance of an honorable man such as yourself. 

Only you Mr. Keenan can make an exception and rehire an exceptional woman such as my wife. 

I’m not asking you to make this decision based on my word alone.  Please ask the clients that Cara worked for while under your employ.  Moreover, please ask her claims manager, Josie Thompson, what type of person Cara is and how exceptional an employee she is.  I’m sure you will find out what an honest, trustworthy, compassionate, efficient, brilliant and wonderful human being she truly is. 

All she is guilty of is falling in love with me, sir.  Since she is filing for divorce, she is already rectifying that mistake.  Thus, if you afford her the opportunity and reinstate her, I am confident that you will regain the model employee you had and also gain an immense amount of loyalty from Cara.

In closing, Mr. Keenan, I pray that God grants you the discernment to see my wife for the person she truly is and that you reinstate her forthwith. 

Respectfully submitted,

Hector Porrata

P.S.  I’m only trying to do the right thing and correct a grievous error that I and I alone, have caused. 

***

So, what do you, my reader, think of that?  Also in Hector’s letter to me on June 24th 2010, he further wrote, “… he (Rene) never spoke percentages, which concerned me, and also the first thought which in retrospect should have told me not to join was, ‘What happens when he doesn’t cut a check (to the Provider)?’ I thought about it for a few days, then I figured I would start with a small bill and see what he does with that...”

In a separate letter, also dated June 24th 2010, an angry Hector Porrata rails that he only received approximately ½ of 1% of all the money that was paid from Matrix and AIG to Rene Montes.  Hector insists that while he was trying to legitimize the business, greed set in upon Rene.  But I personally also believe that cocaine addiction and a gambling addiction also took over Rene Montes, fueling what Hector describes as his greed, and those vices severely distracted Montes away from paying the Providers.  This is how the business bit the dust and the scam blew wide open.  I also suspect other human vices were involved, ones which we can all imagine.

Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@loncelamon.com