TACOMA, Wash. -- For nearly 20 years -- ever since Pete Costello was 8 -- his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf.

In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn't read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car.

But now prosecutors said it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it.


"He's like any other person trying to get out of a traffic ticket," Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said Tuesday.

Pete and Rosie Marie Costello were indicted in September on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and Social Security fraud, and the case was unsealed Tuesday. The Vancouver pair were scheduled to appear in federal court in Tacoma on Tuesday.

Barbosa said he planned to file with the court two videos of Pete Costello taken this year: In one, he allegedly feigns retardation during an interview with Social Security workers; the other is of him contesting the traffic ticket in a courtroom earlier this year.

The indictment accuses Costello of faking -- or at least exaggerating -- retardation since August 1997, because that is what prosecutors are confident they can prove, Barbosa said. But the pair first received benefits 10 years before that.

The benefits cited in the indictment totaled $111,000.

Barbosa said the government does not know whether Costello is retarded to some degree, but he clearly has been "exaggerating whatever he may have, if any."

"This person isn't being honest with the government about his condition," Barbosa said. "It makes it impossible to sort out."

It was not immediately known if the Costellos had obtained attorneys.

We've got a guy at the TDCJ Polunsky Unit here in Texas who's been faking it a lot longer than that!

And to think of all the cases I've tried to refer to the feds over the years; most notably child pornographers and big time drug traffickers. Are they interested in those cases? Not without three eyewitness, DNA, video surveillance, a confession and two years of "cooperation" from the defendant. Must be nice to cherry pick your cases.

This report is ample testimony to the necessity for reviewing intellectual evaluation of persons done in a school system when the person was early enrolled in elementary school. Can impaired functioning be faked? Of course, but uncommonly for intellectual reasons and not being privy to evaluations done by competent persons over a period of time in this case, I am skeptical that such was even done -- save by clerks, or persons in an office processing disability claims.

Be aware that in some school systems data retention rules are such that it may be difficult to obtain data of evaluations done when a person was age 7 and they are now 19.

Yep, and the condition is moving around the Polunsky Unit. We have one who committed his offense 16 years ago and suddenly finds himself retarded a year ago. Fancy that!

We thought one of our our Assistants (Joel) was faking it...but after 2 and a half years we are pretty sure it is the real deal. He keeps calling me Lt. Dan, and talking about his mama.

Yup. And while LD is certainly full of something, it most definetely is NOT a box of chocolates (however the substance which she is full of is a similiar color).