More than half of the disability retirements awarded to police officers under former Bell City Administrator Robert Rizzo — including those given to three police chiefs — should not have been granted, and workers’ compensation settlements for 13 officers were “exceedingly large,” an investigation has concluded.
Former police chief Michael Chavez gets a pension of $117,942, and got a worker’s compensation settlement of $140,000. Former police chief Andreas Probst gets $160,649 a year on top of his $250,000 worker’s compensation settlement. Former police chief Dennis Tavernelli gets $169,027 a year on top of his $395,667 worker’s compensation settlement.
The advantage of a disability retirement is that only half of the pension is taxed; workers’ compensation settlements are tax free.
And:
The Times reported that in at least two instances, the city wrapped severance and unused vacation and sick time into the workers’ comp settlements, which experts said violated tax laws.
Question: if the city and the police chiefs knowingly violated state law in that fashion, could they be charged with tax evasion?
This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 7:21 am and is filed under California Über Alles, Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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