Buried Jeep’s Owner Faces Fraud Trial

It was rusty and it was old, but a Jeep found buried in the yard of a historic Signal Hill home led to the discovery of an insurance scam involving a vehicle reported stolen in Seal Beach in 1994.

The unearthed Jeep found in February was reported stolen by its owner, Ezra Richardson, who now faces felony charges of filing a false insurance claim.

Seal Beach police investigator Charlie Castagna said it was “good old-fashioned police work” that led him to find eyewitnesses to the Jeep’s “burial.”

Castagna was able to contact one or more witnesses by calling Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity headquarters.

In the police archives, Castagna found the original report, including insurance documents stating Richardson belonged to the fraternity. Castagna asked the fraternity for a list of members joining in 1993-95 and was able to find the supporting evidence--the witnesses to the burial--needed to make his case, he said.

The two-door 1981 Jeep CJ was found while construction of Towne Center West began on the site of what was once the yard of the historic Green House and home to the fraternity.

Signal Hill police were called to the scene but they soon turned the case over to Seal Beach police. Charges against the former Cal State Long Beach student, who now lives in East Sound, Wash., are filed at the West Justice Center in Westminster.

A false insurance claim is the only charge against Richardson because vehicle theft cases cannot be prosecuted after three years.

Also, the statute of limitations for filing a false police report is one year, Castagna said.

He said that in cases of fraudulent insurance claims, the statute of limitations starts upon discovery of the crime.

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Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.