Trial date was set for April 4 by Superior Court Judge Ron Kessler today in the case of former KIRO talker Mike Webb, 50, charged in December with felony insurance fraud. An omnibus hearing which is usually concerned with admissability of evidence and pretrial motions will be held on March 21.
Webb, who is a Virgo, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors say Webb was hit in his Lexus by an uninsured driver June 28, and tried collect damages from a Geico Insurance policy he bought June 29. During the investigation, police say, Webb forged bank documents to prove he'd bought the policy previous to the accident.
An Entercomer recently gave us the real story of the fateful night of the accident. Incredibly, Webb left the Eastlake station during his 9p-1a show, to make a run for snacks at a nearby Wally-Mart. He did this often, much to the stressful dismay of his producer and board ops, screeching back into the studio, barely in time- sometimes even minutes late.
On the night in question, he simply didn't come back- until the last five minutes of his show. New York Vinnie, who happened to be at the station was pulled on-air as Program Director Tom Clendening who'd been called at home, tried to find Lou Pate (1-5a) to get him to come in early. Vinnie was highly incensed at being shoved in front of a microphone totally unprepared and wearing flip-flops and a wife-beater.
Clendening covered for Webb and the corporate boyz upstairs at Entercom reportedly never knew about the incident until the fraud case erupted months later.
After his arrest, Webb told the Seattle Times, "It would take an absolute idiot to try to defraud someone like that."
His explanation is a little convoluted, but in essence, it's this:
Someone who hates Webb's talk show probably hacked into Geico's and Washington Mutual's computers; changed the dates on his car insurance policy and those on his debits to accounts payable.
This scheme was cooked up, apparently, so Webb would unwittingly drive around uninsured. When he had the accident with an uninsured driver, he'd been deviously set up for fraud when he innocently tried to make a claim against the policy he says he'd bought months before.
Gunning for Mike because of assault charges he'd made in 2004 against an officer during an incident waiting in line at Dick's Drive-in, the Seattle Police Department had plenty of motive to hack into those corporate computers in order to frame Webb.
All of this was compounded by a possible "clerical or electronic error" on GEICO's part in their on-line application process; and again when Mike mistakenly showed police a proof of insurance card from a company that hadn't insured him since 2001. Apparently the officer didn't see that the card was four years out of date (it happens!). Mike says he simply grabbed the wrong one. It should be simple enough for him to show the judge the right one from Geico he must have had all the time.
Read the police's case against Mike here:
Michael. what do you have against Virgos? you always mention that when your talking about Webb. We Virgos are known for our integrity and perserverance- many of us are Republicans. We always marry the girl. Please lay off. BTW, What's your sign?
Posted by: siggy | February 13, 2006 at 06:29 PM
Scorpio
Posted by: sparky | February 13, 2006 at 06:34 PM
come to me you sexxy, sexxy scorp- I'll take you away from all these nasty republican virgos and there perverted ideas about intimacy and free markets
Posted by: vertigoonwednesdays | February 13, 2006 at 06:55 PM
oh my goodness....
What a nice compliment..however, I am spoken for by the Blister ;-)
Posted by: sparky | February 13, 2006 at 08:35 PM
Any of you who are hoping that facts will come out that will exonerate MikeWebb are in denial. The man is a fraud, period. No one hacked into the fool's bank records. I believe he has narcissistic personality disorder and is probbly one of the 2 most arrogant people I've ever come across. I was wondering how we'd ever get this toxic fellow off the air, since it was obvious that the fix was in with Glendenning. I knew he was being kept on the air because he was buddies with management or he was holding nasty pics on him. It turned out his own narcissism/arrogance did him in. Great.
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 13, 2006 at 09:25 PM
oh and one more thing- Mike Webb, you're an assclown.
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 13, 2006 at 09:27 PM
I think Mike is innocent.
What happened? No, not hacking. But a clerical goof-up is real easy to believe. I've heard too many insurance claim horror stories not to start my guessing there.
The above post? It felt like cold hate rolling off the page.
Good luck, Mike.
Posted by: Mel | February 13, 2006 at 10:20 PM
If Webb is convicted of a felony, doesn't that mean he can no longer own firearms? Oh JOY JOY JOY JOY
Posted by: recife | February 13, 2006 at 11:04 PM
He's gone. For good. Talking about the smoldering wreck that is Mike Webb is like admiring the finish on the coffin.
Posted by: Andrew | February 14, 2006 at 12:43 AM
I always figured those extra long montages at the beginning of each hour were to give him the opportunity to take an extra long break. I figured he was just hanging around the KIRO lunchroom or something, though... I never would have guessed he was leaving the building!
Gah. When I was on the air I would have been terrified of leaving the building and not getting back in time. Hell, I had plenty of nightmares about locking myself out of the studio after a bathroom run... it takes some serious cojones to drive away like that during a show.
Posted by: litlnemo | February 14, 2006 at 03:35 AM
I had on Lou Pate this morning , and yesterday morning . I really like the late night guests and the show really holds its own . Ron and Don , and then Lou Pate super line up and dont for get Gary behind the glass ! LOVE YA!!!
Posted by: Brian Lacey wa | February 14, 2006 at 06:47 AM
"I never would have guessed he was leaving the building!
Gah. When I was on the air I would have been terrified of leaving the building and not getting back in time."
Andrew, if you were also logged in as the operator on duty, getting fired for leaving the building would have been the least of your troubles. The FCC might also want to talk to you about the relatively minor issue of leaving the transmitter, unattended & cooking.
That Webb got away with leaving the building, even once, is a real mystery... especially for a market the size of Seattle.
Posted by: Don | February 14, 2006 at 08:38 AM
isn't that what interns are for?
You really have to have a screw loose to think that leaving in the middle of your show is SOP, and a-ok.
Hell, buy some cheetos on the way into work and do your damn show.
The more the story unfolds, the crazier webb seems.
Posted by: sadfsadfsadasd | February 14, 2006 at 11:11 AM
I bet he reads every comment here and keeps an enemies list.
Posted by: Mike Barer | February 14, 2006 at 03:28 PM
I think his "Internet Streaming" show is excellent. Too bad other innovative hosts brave those waters. No commercials and no Dori Monson hawking everything from Stupid Prices to a goddamn invisible fence.
Posted by: Bellingham Bob | February 14, 2006 at 03:33 PM
yeah but how is Mike going to make his Lexus payments and pay those fines and lawyer fees? Innovative my ass, he is just doing the same old shit but for no money.
Posted by: siggy | February 14, 2006 at 03:53 PM
Wow I guess Mike Webb doesn't think to highly of Dori Monson.
Posted by: Andrew | February 14, 2006 at 03:56 PM
The only one who thinks highly of Dori is Dori.
Posted by: Dana | February 14, 2006 at 04:49 PM
Dana says:The only one who thinks highly of Dori is Dori.Not true.I,m sure his dog Star loves him to
Posted by: snoutcounter | February 14, 2006 at 08:43 PM
Dori was at his sanctimonius, priggish best today as he defended those fascists at WalMart against the proposed state law mandating they pay for their own workers healthcare, instead of making government social services and welfare take care of them. . According to him these greedy scumbags are simply champs= brilliant, all-American entrepreneurs hwo are being unfairly punished by the government for being too successful. What an ass.
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 14, 2006 at 10:35 PM
Does anyone think that Lou Pate is gay?
Posted by: Beever | February 15, 2006 at 07:11 AM
When (not if) he is convicted he will forfeit his right to possess the following:
(1) a firearm
(2) a ballot
But he will still be able to do voiceovers for commercials, such as for big insurance companies.
Posted by: Cheney.got.his.gun | February 15, 2006 at 11:52 AM
Pate, or Herr Pate as I call him, for his Nazilike manner with anyone who disagrees with him, is constantly bragging about what a handsome adonis/ stud he is and how the young babes were going to be handing up their numbers to him at the Battle of the Talkshow Hosts, so if he is gay he's a major fake, but I have no evidence that he's gay. I don't think he's gay. There's so many absolutely true things to loathe and despise Lou for already, I don't need to make up anything about him. By the way, another"vacation" day for Lou last night. What's the tally now since December?
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 15, 2006 at 12:29 PM
"Andrew, if you were also logged in as the operator on duty, getting fired for leaving the building would have been the least of your troubles."
You misread; it wasn't Andrew you were responding to -- it was me. And, yes, you're right, though I wouldn't think at KIRO that the hosts are also the responsible operators.
Posted by: litlnemo | February 16, 2006 at 07:28 PM