You may remember from our August 2022 newsletter that “Yellowstone” actress, Q’Orianka Kilcher, was charged with two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud for allegedly collecting $96,838 in benefits for an injury sustained while filming “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” all while working on “Yellowstone.” Kilcher was arraigned in May 2022 and pleaded not guilty to the charges in June 2022.
However, according to an article by Gene Maddaus of Variety, Kilcher has been cleared of all charges after a Los Angeles Judge threw them out in February after prosecutors indicated they could not proceed.
Maddaus writes, “‘After the charges were filed, the Workers Compensation Insurance claims adjuster retroactively changed his conclusion regarding her ability to work,’ a D.A. spokesperson said in a statement. ‘We therefore determined that Ms. Kilcher did not commit insurance fraud and advised the court that we were unable to proceed.’”
Kilcher had help from some heavy-hitting attorneys, of course; Camille Vasquez (who you might remember represented Johnny Depp in the Depp vs. Heard case, if you watched that doozy of a trial) and Stephen Cook of Brown Rudnick LLP.
Furthermore, according to Kilcher’s reps, “she aims to use her experience ‘to shed light on the experiences of other workers who have been injured in the workplace.”