NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court on Thursday affirmed the convictions and prison sentence of a Dripping Springs woman who embellished her Army veteran husband’s wartime injuries to carry out a years-long fraud scheme.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied the appeal of Josephine Perez-Gorda, who is currently serving a federal prison sentence.
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Perez-Gorda, who reported to prison last summer, was convicted by a jury in late 2022 of 18 charges including wire fraud, making false statements related to health care matters and theft of government funds.
For nearly six years, from 2011 to 2017, Perez-Gorda falsely told federal agencies that her husband, Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda, was paralyzed from the belly button down.
Justin Perez-Gorda suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan in early 2011.
While the couple claimed in Veterans Affairs and Social Security paperwork that he had lost the use of his lower extremities, footage gathered by federal investigators showed Justin Perez-Gorda walking.
Justin Perez-Gorda died while in federal custody in Missouri while awaiting trial in early 2022.
Josephine Perez-Gorda is currently serving her sentence at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, Federal Bureau of Prisons records show.
She is scheduled to be released in June 2026.
In denying Josephine Perez-Gorda’s appeal, the court noted that she had requested a car through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to accommodate her husband’s mobility, only to then trade it in for a new Cadillac Escalade that was not equipped with the corresponding adaptive equipment.
Last year, as federal authorities attempted to seize a $110,000 truck belonging to Josephine Perez-Gorda, investigators discovered it had been taken to Kentucky.
The truck was returned days later after Josephine Perez-Gorda and the man in possession of the truck were ordered to appear in federal court.
Josephine Perez-Gorda had purchased the truck while the criminal case against her was ongoing and while being represented by a court-appointed attorney, the judge who oversaw her trial noted last year.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.