A Florida woman was charged by police on Tuesday after ending a call with an insurance company by saying, “Delay, Deny, Depose,” the three words that are reminiscent of writings found in the shell casings retrieved at UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thomposon’s murder scene in New York last week.
Lakeland resident Briana Boston was seen in tears in court after the FBI tipped off the Lakeland Police Department who subsequently arrested the 42-year-old. According to her arrest affidavit, Boston was on call with insurance company BlueCross BlueShield regarding recent medical claims she was denied when she made the alleged threat.
Toward the end of the call, law enforcement said Boston could be heard saying: “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.” Police discovered those same words on bullet casings at the scene of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder and allegedly reflect the wording of a 2010 book, Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
Her affidavit noted that the phone call was recorded in its entirety and that the words Boston used have become nationally recognized as a slogan “directed against insurance companies.”
“She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” said Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor, per WFLA.
After police made contact with Boston, she reportedly admitted to saying the words on the call and told detectives “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil.”
She also apparently added that she used that specific phrase “because it’s what is in the news right now” and learned it off Thompson’s assassination.
Police also said that Boston told officers she did not own any firearms and “was not a danger to anyone.”
“She readily admitted that, ‘Yeah that’s exactly what I said but I didn’t mean anything by it’,” Chief Taylor said. “Well, you don’t get to pull that back after you say it.”
She was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, according to the affidavit. A judge set her bond at $100,000, describing it as “appropriate considering the status of our country at this point.”
In footage from her court appearance, Boston appeared to cry after learning that she was going to be placed in jail on a triple-figure bond.
Her attorney Jim Headley told the court, “My client is 42, married mother of three. Never had any criminal charges or convictions. May you release her on her own recognizance.”
Since 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was named the top suspect in Thompson’s killing, alarming trends inspired by evidence allegedly gathered around him have emerged. On Tuesday, a series of ‘Wanted’ posters of corporate executives appeared around New York with some similarly quoting the “Deny. Defend. Depose.” slogan found in the crime scene’s shell casings.
The NYPD confirmed to Bloomberg that it is investigating the posters, as more executives speak out on threats they’ve been allegedly receiving.
