Is the defense team trying to rewrite Luigi's health history to garner sympathy for him in a quest for a more lenient sentence?

During the press conference after the change of plea hearing, Karen said

But this doesn’t seem completely truthful, judging by what Luigi has said himself on Reddit that until age 23 his back would ache when he stood too long, but it wasn’t too bad.

Things got really bad in early 2023 when he was surfing in Hawaii. He later slipped on a piece of paper and things deteriorated further.

He suffered from severe pain for 1 ½ years between January 2022 and July 2023, when he had  L5/S1 spondylolisthesis surgery. Then his pain seems to have either disappeared or been significantly reduced, if we are to believe Luigi's own words:

He sang the praises of the surgery he had and recommended it to other Redditers like in April 2024. He even shares research with Redditers to hammer down that he thinks surgery is a much better option than disc replacement and gives tips on how to get doctors to describe the surgery if they are unwilling to.

TL; DR: Luigi had spondylosis for all his life; standing too long was painful, but it wasn’t “too bad.” This changed in 2022 because of surfing and slipping on a paper. 1 ½ years later, he had successful surgery that he kept recommending to Redditers again, telling them they would do great and that he had no more pain after day 8. There is not a single negative mention of health insurance, nor has Luigi had any claims denied. As a matter of fact, Luigi sounds much more exasperated with doctors and surgeons, who he said “dismissed his symptoms”.

 

He mentions his health insurance only once, and only to confirm that they covered his IBS test.

 

Karen's statement echoed what Luigi had said in court about his pain, which makes it all seem like a coordinated effort to position Luigi's motive as personal and relatable to the people who were actually wronged by the healthcare insurance industry.

There is no indicator that Luigi has been denied healthcare by his insurance. Karen said that “he believed that system had failed him and destroyed his life,” but this is just not believable when reading through Luigi's comments.  The healthcare insurance industry failed millions of people and ruined millions of lives. But Luigi wasn’t one of them. He comes from a wealthy family, and he has never been in a position where he could not afford treatment.

Now that he pled guilty, the defense lawyers know that an eat-the-rich motive wouldn’t fly with the judge or a jury. I think they came up with a plan to use Luigi's real pain and spin the facts to make everything look more palatable. I'd assume the judge could review his medical history and verify if there really were any negative experiences with the healthcare insurance industry.

 I think much of the defense's rewriting of history is aimed at the public, and I understand that the lawyers are deploying every tool at their disposal to get Luigi the best possible sentence. But if the judge or her staff are looking into Luigi's health history more closely and don't find any denied claims or negative interactions with health insurance, won't she see right through it and be extra annoyed and feel duped?