A Butler woman is accused of falsely claiming her daughter was physically injured in a school bus accident last fall at the Butler Middle School.

Shaquinda M. Kotay, 30, initially sought more than $20,000 in damages, citing such injuries as neck and back stiffness.

But it turned out, according to state investigators, that her 12-year-old daughter was not on the bus at the time of the accident.

Kotay was released on her own recognizance following arraignment Tuesday before District Judge William Fullerton in Butler on felony charges of insurance fraud and attempted theft by deception.

She faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 12.

The charges followed an investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office Insurance Fraud Section that began after Kotay filed a claim with Nationwide Insurance Co. in connection with the Oct. 26 accident.

Authorities said the accident occurred at the middle school around 9 a.m. when a minibus “bumped” into the rear of a full-sized bus as students were being dropped off. The Butler School District notified all parents of the students on both buses about the accident, and the school nurse examined those students.

No injuries were reported, according to court documents. One of the buses sustained only a small dent.

But on Oct. 31, Kotay contacted Valley Lines Inc., the district's busing contractor. She claimed her daughter was on one of the buses and suffered injuries in the accident.

She advised that she had picked up her child at the school after the accident and taken her to the Butler General Hospital emergency room that same day, investigators said. X-rays were taken, the defendant said.

Kotay submitted a demand letter on or about Nov. 13 to Nationwide Insurance Co., the bus company's insurance provider, requesting $20,078 in damages.

The letter indicated the child had “neck and back stiffness,” documents said, and suffered “emotional distress” and “implacable fits of crying.”

On Dec. 18, she sent an email to Nationwide that informed the company “she would now resolve her daughter's bodily injury claim for $3,265,” documents said.

But that same day, the company's own investigator provided surveillance video to the district that allegedly undercut the defendant's claim. The video, which was from the inside of the full-sized bus in the accident, showed Kotay's daughter getting off the vehicle about five seconds before the accident, according to a state insurance fraud investigator.

The investigation also subsequently found that the defendant's daughter was not treated at the Butler hospital Oct. 26.

State investigators interviewed Kotay March 5, and she acknowledged filing the suspected fraudulent claim, documents said.

“(She) stated that she was wrong for telling the insurance company that she sought medical treatment for her daughter when she did not,” documents said, “but feels her daughter incurred emotional trauma as a result of witnessing the accident.”

Court records did not list an attorney for Kotay, and she could not be reached for comment.