By LaToya Hicks

Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes announced today the indictment of three persons – including a former prosecutor, a former corrections officer and a former Transit Authority lawyer — charged with scamming the Transit Authority out of more than $150,000 in two separate schemes over four years.

According to the indictment, the head of the Transit Authority law department unit steered insurance claim work to a company owned by a former prosecutor in exchange for kickbacks.

In a separate scheme the same lawyer approved padded bills submitted by another business owner, a retired correction officer, in exchange for half the profits, the indictment charged.

“Jacqueline Jackson, whose job it was to save taxpayers money by fighting frivolous lawsuits against NYCTA, cost those taxpayers money, by stealing from the very agency that hired her,” said Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes of the accused TA lawyer

Jackson, 51, who was promoted in 1999 to the agency’s Law Department’s Legal Support Unit in the Torts Division, was in charge of setting up independent medical examinations for people suing the agency. She attained important documents such as insurance, medical and employment records relating to those plaintiffs and their claims.

Joyce Ilarraza, 63, a former City Corrections Officer, who retired in 1993, owned a record retrieval company called A.J.I Record Retrieval.

“A.J.I was the only company that was used by the TA people support unit to obtain records needed for the lawsuits,” said Hynes.

John E. Headley, 45, a former prosecutor at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office (from 1991 to 1995), owned a company called Advance IME Co. - which provided the agency lawyers with independent medical examinations, medical records and expert witnesses, to testify at trials.

Headley operated Advance IME Co. under a false name, James Douglass, because he also worked as an outside counsel for the agency, Hynes said

“This case represents probably a classic example of what’s characterized as a waste, fraud and abuse,” said MTA Inspector General Barry L. Kluger.

In one indictment, Headley is charged with working with Jackson to steal more than $98,000 from the agency in 2007 and 2008. In the other indictment, Jackson, Headley and Ilazzara are charged with stealing more than $50,000. Charges against the defendants carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.