Suspect admits he forced son to shoot him in legs to delay prison term

Shannon Egeland. (Multnomah County Sheriff via AP, File)

It was a dramatic tale: A man was attacked on the side of a road and badly wounded the day before he was to report to prison in an Oregon mortgage fraud scheme.

Shannon Egeland told police he had stopped to help a pregnant motorist when he was hit in the head and shot.

That story turned out to be false, but the truth was equally bizarre.

Egeland, 41, has admitted he ordered his teenage son to shoot him in the legs so he could delay his prison term and collect on a disability insurance policy. The shooting broke a bone in one of Egeland's legs and led to the amputation of one of his feet.

On Wednesday, the former Bend developer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a charge that stemmed from the disability insurance policy he applied for a week before the shooting.

Egeland was vice president of the now-defunct Desert Sun Development, which orchestrated tens of millions of dollars in mortgage fraud during central Oregon's real estate boom and bust from 2004 to 2008.

He was one of 12 people indicted in the scandal, The Oregonian reported. It primarily involved two schemes, one centered on commercial development projects and the other on a home construction-flipping scheme.

Company officials falsified loan documents and secured construction loans for projects that were never completed, prosecutors alleged.

Egeland was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role. He was wounded in the roadside shooting near Caldwell, Idaho, on July 31, 2014.

Prosecutors said besides suffering a disability in a deceitful manner, Egeland lied in the insurance application he sent across state lines from Idaho to Portland's Standard Insurance Company, prosecutors said. He told the company he had not been arrested in the past 10 years.

In late 2010, Egeland was convicted of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. In 2013, he was convicted of theft for stealing $9 worth of items from a store.

Egeland also pleaded guilty Wednesday to willful failure to pay child support. Beyond answering procedural questions, he did not make a statement at the hearing in Portland.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford said he planned to recommend a five-year prison sentence, tacked onto what Egeland already is serving.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown scheduled sentencing for Oct. 5, though it could get pushed back because it coincides with the trial she is overseeing for Ammon Bundy and others charged with occupying a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.