By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON.
On trial are Joseph Houghtaling, 36; his brother, Frank, 32; their wives, Renee and Rhonda Houghtaling, who are 34-year-old twins; family matriarch, Donna Houghtaling, 58; and her daughter, Brenda Warner, 38.
Prosecutor Bradley Sherman is leading the jury, crash by crash, through what he has called a concerted effort by the defendants to rip off the system.
Earlier Monday, a Progressive Insurance adjuster testified that he alerted the company's special investigation unit on March 16, 1997, about another crash.
The adjuster, Kirk Field, said that after Frank Houghtaling reported he'd crashed his car into his father's Poplar Street garage in Colonie, Houghtaling insisted that the accident wrecked the garage and everything in it, including his brother Joe's motorcycle. But what caught his eye, Field recalled, was that Frank Houghtaling had purchased full auto coverage on a 12-year-old, 100,000-mile car just four days before the alleged crash.
Progressive eventually paid Joe Houghtaling $5,000 for damage to his bike; $5,000 to Alfred Houghtaling for the property damage; $886.05 to Frank Houghtaling for damage to his old car; and $200 for a rental car, he said.
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