• Search Loading

Home   >   News   >   Featured News   >   Massapequa Man Admits Fake Drowning Death

Massapequa Man Admits Fake Drowning Death

By on March 21, 2013
Brian Davis, the attorney for Raymond Roth, speaks to reporters outside Nassau COunty court on March 21, 2013.

Brian Davis, the attorney for Raymond Roth, speaks to reporters outside Nassau COunty court on March 21, 2013.

A Massapequa man has admitted faking his own drowning death in an attempt to escape mounting debt, have his family profit from his life insurance policy and secretly start his life over in Florida.

Raymond Roth pleaded guilty Thursday at Nassau County court to fourth-degree conspiracy, a felony, in a plea deal with prosecutors. He’s expected to be sentenced May 21 to 90 days in jail on the condition that he pays $36,000 in restitution to the U.S. Coast Guard and Nassau police for resources wasted searching for his body at Jones Beach last summer.

“I’m feeling better, I’ve started school,” the 48-year-old unemployed telecommunications worker told Judge Tammy Robbins after recapping his two-week psych-ward stay, diagnoses as bipolar and suicide attempt before he turned himself in to police last August.

Roth’s 22-year-old son, Jonathan, had reported that Raymond went missing while swimming at the beach July 28, prompting a search that lasted days until police learned he was at his time share in Florida. Jonathan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and filing a false report Monday.

“He was not thinking rationally at the time,” Raymond’s Garden City based attorney, Brian Davis, told reporters outside the courthouse. He said his client was planning to get a job on a fishing boat or at a tiki bar in the Sunshine State.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the bizarre case proved to be a needless distraction for search and rescue workers.

“This case easily could’ve turned tragic had an actual emergency occurred while this defendant sent first responders on a wild goose chase,” Rice said.

Davis said that Raymond, who is reportedly enrolled in culinary school, is hoping to reconnect with his son, who accused Raymond of abusing him and coercing him to participate in the scheme.

Raymond Roth

Raymond Roth

Raymond’s wife, Evana, filed for divorce last year after she discovered emails revealing her husband and son had plotted the fake drowning a week in advance. Raymond had also put the family home up for sale, sold his clothes and emptied the couples’ bank accounts.

After the plot started to unravel, Raymond called police himself to say he would turn himself in, then was stopped for speeding in South Carolina while on his way back to New York.

Raymond had faced up to 15 years in prison if he had been convicted at trial of insurance fraud. His son is due back in court April 15. Raymond declined to comment to reporters while leaving the court.

PrintFriendly and PDFPrint Friendly

Leave a comment

Timothy Bolger Timothy Bolger (532 Posts)

Timothy Bolger is the News/Web Editor for the Long Island Press who’s been working to uncover unreported stories for the paper since shortly after it launched in 2003. When he’s not editing, getting hassled by The Man or fielding cold calls to the newsroom, he covers crime, general interest and political news daily online with longer, sometimes investigative features in the monthly print edition. He won’t be happy until everyone is as pissed off as he is about how Lawn Guyland is screwed up.