Ex-Logger Charged With Stealing $300K Through Workers' Comp Scam

KALAMA, WA — A Cowlitz County man is facing up to a decade in prison and $320,000 in fees and restitution, after an investigation found he had been scamming the state through bogus workers' comp claims.

52-year-old James Joseph Thomasson is facing one count of felony-first degree theft, following a recent review by Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). According to L&I, Thomasson was working as a logger in 2006 when he was hit in the leg by a falling tree. The next year, he claimed to have hurt his back while felling a tree in Shelton.

Following those accidents, his doctor told L&I he could no longer work because of his injuries, so Thomasson applied for workers' comp.

The problem: Thomasson has been capable of working for at least the last four years, according to investigators. Between March 2016 and January 2020, Thomasson claimed $249,000 in wage replacement, and nearly $50,000 more for vocational and medical benefits.

In 2019 L&I received an anonymous tip that Thomasson was actually exaggerating his injuries — and had actually been working full time as a beekeeper while still taking the workers' comp payments.

L&I says an undercover investigation quickly confirmed those claims, as agents found multiple videos of him dancing, lifting heavy pipes and doing other activities he claimed he couldn't. Not only that, but they say Thomasson would limp his way into the doctor's office, but would leave walking regularly.

Thomasson also reportedly told his doctor he knew L&I was watching him, and L&I agents say at least once they saw Thomasson moving regularly, lifting a garbage can in one hand and talking with his phone in the other, only for him to drop both and feign a limp when he saw he was being watched.

Ultimately L&I presented their findings to Thomasson's medical provider, who found that he had “engaged in well-executed intentional underperformance” of his mobility, and that he likely could have been able to work starting in March 2016.

Thomasson is set to be arraigned on felony first-degree theft charges Tuesday. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, plus a $20,000 fine. He would also have to repay the $300,000 he received through workers' compensation.