Joey Buttafuoco arrested in auto insurance fraud sting
By John Springer
Court TV
(Court TV) -- Joey Buttafuoco, the auto repairman at the center of the "Long Island Lolita" shooting case in the early 1990s, was arrested Wednesday in Los Angeles based on allegations he helped undercover investigators prepare phony insurance claims.
Buttafuoco, 47, was charged with three counts of insurance fraud and one count of grand theft. He and 10 other suspects were swept up in a multi-agency task force investigation into bogus insurance claims filed for cars that were not damaged, according to the Los Angeles district attorney's office.
Buttafuoco is co-owner of California Collision, a Chatsworth auto body shop. According to a press release issued by District Attorney Steve Cooley, Buttafuoco allegedly prepared estimates for fraudulent car repairs and auto body painting. He also is accused of helping undercover investigators file fraudulent insurance claims on cars that were not damaged.
An answering machine greeted callers to California Collision on Wednesday. Buttafuoco, who remains jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail, is scheduled for arraignment Friday.
The name Buttafuoco became a common punchline on late-night TV shows after a seemingly local news story leapt into the national spotlight in May 1989. His teenaged lover and sometimes prostitute, Amy Fisher, shot Buttafuoco's wife in the head at close range after knocking on the front door of the couple's Long Island home.
The victim, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, survived and later divorced her husband. Fisher served seven years in prison, married a man 24 years her senior, and now writes a bimonthly column for a Long Island news magazine. Buttafuoco got six months in jail for statutory rape, did a series of TV and movie cameo appearances, and finally returned to the auto repair business.
If convicted of the insurance fraud charges, Buttafuoco faces up to six years, four months in a California prison.
