Judge explains verdict reversal

A U.S. District Court judge has explained why he acquitted a beauty queen with local ties who had been convicted by a federal jury of mail fraud and conspiracy.

In a 38-page order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy wrote that insurance provider Chubb Corporation was not defrauded by Christian Didier when she misrepresented her living conditions after the Somers mansion — which she then owned — was damaged by a windstorm and a minor fire.

Didier and codefendant Surayya Nasir — Didier’s broker — were alleged to have told a temporary housing vendor retained by Chubb that, during seven months of 2008 during repairs on the mansion, her temporary residence was a 6,900-square-foot home with five bedrooms, two baths and an in-ground pool.

In reality Didier was living in an 860-square-foot cabin with no indoor plumbing and only an above-ground pool.

Molloy wrote that Chubb was “contractually obligated to pay what it was allegedly deprived of by misrepresentation or lies.”

“Chubb argued to state and federal regulatory and investigative agencies that it had been victimized when Didier misrepresented the nature of her temporary residence,” Molloy wrote. “But, because Chubb was obligated to pay her an amount sufficient to maintain her standard of living in a mansion with multiple bedrooms, multiple baths, and even a ballroom, whatever she said could not have been material to Chubb.”

Molloy wrote that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain the convictions of Didier and Nasir because there was no proof that any of Didier’s misrepresentations caused Chubb to pay her any more than she was already due under the policy.

“Nothing Didier or Nasir said or did relieved Chubb of its obligation to pay the value of what she left as opposed to where she went,” Molloy wrote.

In addition, Molloy referred to the requirements for a conviction on mail fraud, which includes knowingly devising or participating in a scheme or plan to defraud, making statements or omissions of fact material to the scheme, and acting with specific intent to defraud. He argued that Didier’s statements had no effect on the payout of her claim.

That, he wrote, is why acquittal was the correct course of action in the case.

“Every day in this country there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of insurance claims made or resolved. In many of those claims the carrier pays the policy value of the roof destroyed by wind, the collision damage from a wreck, or the estimated value of windshield damage,” Molloy wrote. “Likewise, everyday insurance adjustors engage in thousands of transactions and adjustments concerning liability payments, home owners claims, or replacement value disputes.”

If the theory presented by prosecutors in the case were true, he wrote, that the contractual obligation of the insurance carrier to pay the insured is separate from how the money is used, all of those claims could provide the basis for mail-fraud indictments.

“Is it mail fraud when the owner of a damaged car gets the requisite three estimates, obtains payment by mail from the carrier but then has someone else do the work, pocketing the difference or savings? What if the owner never has the damage repaired, is that fraud?” Molloy wrote.

Molloy also used examples of a water heater leaking and destroying a beautiful wooden floor, for which the insured is reimbursed, then only replaces the floor with linoleum or chooses not to fix it at all.

Didier was charged in September 2012 with misrepresenting herself to her insurance company and its representatives over the course of seven months in 2008, persuading them to improperly pay for her temporary housing.

Didier, a Lewistown native who was named Miss Montana USA at age 24 in 1997, bought the Somers mansion in 2005 for $1.1 million. She was eventually forced to file for bankruptcy prior to the mansion being damaged, and the mansion was foreclosed on in February 2011.

Didier and Nasir were both convicted of all counts against them by a jury on March 22 before Molloy ordered the judgment vacated on July 30.

Molloy also wrote that if the acquittal of either Didier or Nasir is overturned in the future by the 9th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals, it would be appropriate for each to be granted new trials separate from each other.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Racicot has already filed appeals in both cases.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.