Background: Scene of the Stagecoach Festival (Stagecoach Festival/YouTube). Inset: Nicole Brown (Westminster Police Department/Facebook).
A former police officer from California claimed she couldn’t perform her duties after sustaining a head injury on the job — and then she was seen dancing at a music festival.
According to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 39-year-old Nicole Brown was a police officer with the Westminster Police Department when she was injured on the job in March 2022. The release stated that Brown sustained “a minor abrasion to her forehead while attempting to arrest and handcuff an uncooperative suspect.” She was examined at the emergency room after she complained about headaches, but was released without any medical restrictions.
Brown then allegedly called out sick for several days and claimed she’d been diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome, which resulted in her being placed on total temporary disability.
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While unable to perform her duties as an officer, Brown was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits after sustaining her alleged injury while on the job — including her full salary, tax-free, paid for by “the city, county, or state agency that employs the officer,” according to the DA. After a one-year period, that amount decreases to 2/3 of her full salary but can pay out for up to 104 weeks.
According to the DA, Brown collected more than $600,000 in benefits.
However, evidence obtained by the DA’s office called Brown’s so-called “total disability” into question. While out on disability, Brown allegedly claimed that she suffered from “headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words, and an inability to work on the computer or do any screentime.”
But on April 23, 2023 — a full year after Brown went on disability and while still claiming to be suffering symptoms of a concussion — Brown was seen by “several people” who had knowledge of her medical status “dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival, with more than 75,000 people in attendance with loud music and bright lights everywhere and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.”
After those people reported Brown’s activities at Stagecoach to the Westminster Police Department, an investigation into the officer’s disability claims began.
Brown’s own stepfather, 57-year-old Peter Schuman, is an attorney who specializes in workers’ compensation cases, according to local Fox affiliate KTTV. He spoke on behalf of his stepdaughter during a Zoom meeting that took place three days after Brown was purportedly at the Stagecoach festival. During that Zoom call, which concerned what duties Brown could currently perform as a police officer, the DA said that Brown claimed she could not look at the computer screen. Schuman, who reportedly “did all of the talking,” stated that his stepdaughter “was unable to do paperwork, and was uncertain that she could do phone calls due to her inability to process words or thoughts.”
Brown was then reportedly admitted to inpatient treatment for traumatic brain injury.
But more evidence was apparently unearthed during the DA’s investigation into Brown’s alleged activities while she was on total disability. Three days after she was injured, Brown attended a soccer conference that utilized several PowerPoint presentations. Throughout the ensuing year — while claiming total disability — Brown allegedly “ran in two 5K races, went snowboarding and/or skiing in Big Bear and Mammoth, went to three AYSO soccer conferences, attended baseball games, played golf, went to Disneyland, and took online courses with a local university.”
Brown was charged on Friday with 15 felonies — nine counts of making a fraudulent statement to obtain compensation and six counts of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim. She also faces a sentencing enhancement of aggravated white collar crime exceeding $100,000.
Schuman was charged with two felonies — making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and assisting, abetting, conspiring with and soliciting a person in an illegal act.
