As reported by The Washington Post, a man has pleaded not guilty to a scheme to commit insurance fraud that suggested he aided his father in faking the elder man's disappearance and presumed death following a swim at a New York beach.
J.R., 22, was accused of falsely reporting his father's demise on July 28 to police.
J.R.'s bail bond, set at $10,000, would most likely not be posted, according to his girlfriend, as he is not employed.
The court's criminal complaint, prepared with the assistance of investigators, stated that J.R. "was fully aware that his father never walked into the water and had in fact driven off in his own personal vehicle" and that the two conspired to obtain over $50,000 from the elder man's life insurance policy.
R.R., J.R.'s father, was speeding at 90 mph when police officers in Santee, S.C., issued him a ticket a few days after his alleged disappearance. The officer noticed R.R.'s name on a list in the national registry of missing people, and when R.R. offered that he was driving back to New York, the officer allowed him to continue to head north.
J.R., after being arrested on August 6, was charged with insurance fraud and filing a false report. If convicted, J.R. will face up to 15 years in prison.
R.R., 47, has yet to turn himself in or be found.
J.R. has argued that he has nothing to do with his father's actions, however, E.R., R.R.'s wife, told reporters that her husband planned his own disappearance. E.R. also claims to have had no prior knowledge of R.R.'s plans.
E.R. also offered the information that R.R. had been fired from a job in New York City.
The same day as J.R.'s arrest, E.R. announced that she planned to divorce R.R. and had since taken out an order of protection against him.
E.R. also made copies of e-mails, allegedly from father to son, available to members of the press. The day prior to R.R.'s disappearance an email instructed J.R. to contact R.R. in a resort in Orlando, Fla. In another email J.R. is instructed to "get to the bank for cash for the trip". A third e-mail tells J.R. to help R.R. pack the car for the trip.
J.R. contended that he had not received the three emails from his father.
New York State Park Police Captain Bruce Marx, who has jurisdiction over Jones Beach where R.R. disappeared, said that detectives had yet to hear from the missing man. Marx said that the cost of the search for R.R., over air and sea, was upwards to tens of thousands of dollars. In the several-day search police vehicles, marine patrols, a helicopter, approximately 40 lifeguards, fire department dive teams and the U.S. Coast Guard were all deployed, according to Marx, in an effort to locate R.R.
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