Q’orianka Kilcher, an actress who appeared in “The New World” and “Yellowstone,” is facing criminal charges for allegedly collecting disability benefits even though she was able to work.
Kilcher has been charged with two criminal charges related to workers’ compensation. He reportedly collected $96,838 in benefits after injuring his neck and shoulder while filming The Lost Cycle and City of Gold.
But investigators with the California Department of Insurance found that she was in good health to work at Yellowstone the following year, at the time she claimed to be disabled, according to a department news release Monday.
The department announced the charges Monday, despite Kelcher’s guilty pleas and his May 27 plea of not guilty. differentHis attorney denied the allegations, saying Kilcher “had never knowingly accepted benefits he did not believe he deserved.”
“As such, Ms. Kilcher will vigorously defend herself and ask you to presume her innocence both in and out of court,” attorney Michael Baker said.
Kilcher is best known for her portrayal of Pocahontas in the 2005 film The New World directed by Terrence Malik. She also appeared in the lead role in “Princess Kaiulani,” a 2009 film about the colonization of Hawaii. She played Kawilaca, an Inca princess, in the 2019 film Dora. She appeared in four episodes of Yellowstone during the third season, which aired in 2020.
Kilcher allegedly injured her neck and right shoulder while filming “Dora” in October 2018. Her attorney said she was a passenger in the production car when the injury occurred.
According to the Ministry of Insurance, after that he went to the doctor several times, but stopped receiving treatment and did not respond to a query from his employer’s insurance company.
Kilcher approached the insurance company to seek treatment a year later, in October 2019, according to the department. She allegedly told the doctor that she attended to her claim that her neck pain had become so severe that she had to turn down jobs and that she had not worked for a year. The administration stated that she quickly began receiving temporary total disability benefits.
Investigators then reviewed salary data and found that Kilcher worked at Yellowstone from July 2019 to October 2019, just before he sought treatment. That job ended just five days before Kilcher began collecting benefits, according to the department. The department later alleged that the doctor said she would not have approved the payments if she had known of her recent work history.
Kilcher’s attorney denied that she ever cheated.
“Outside physicians have verified your injury and your eligibility for benefits,” Baker said in the statement. “Ms. Kilcher has been truthful throughout with her doctors and treatment providers.”
The attorney said she also provided regular updates to her workers’ compensation specialist.
Christopher Hartman, attorney general for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, is in charge of the case. The deadline for Kilcher Court is August 7.
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