Fired Southampton Village Officer Seeks Lost Benefits After State Awards Him September 11 Disability Payments

A former Southampton Village Police sergeant who lost his benefits when he was fired more than three and a half years ago is claiming via a complaint filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights that his benefits should be restored, since he was recently awarded accidental disability retirement benefits related to his volunteer work at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Christopher Broich, the former officer, is arguing that his disability predates his firing by the village, and thus he should be eligible for all of the benefits he lost upon his termination in December 2007. He said he was first diagnosed with the disability, identified in his complaint as asthma, in February 2007.

Mr. Broich has filed numerous lawsuits against the village following his termination for misconduct and incompetence, none of which has been decided in his favor to date. Officials say the village has spent more than $500,000 to defend those lawsuits, in which he sought, in part, to be reinstated to the force.

But at the same time he also filed applications to the state in May 2008 seeking to be declared eligible for disability pension benefits, both through the World Trade Center disability program and through the state employee retirement system.

Mr. Broich voluntarily responded to the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, as did many East End police officers and rescue workers. What services he performed and the exact dates of his service are unclear, and he declined to say in an interview this week.

On April 26 of this year, the state determined that Mr. Broich was “permanently incapacitated for the performance of duties,” based on an accident that occurred on an “unspecified date and time,” according to a document signed by Kathleen A. Nowak, director of disability services for the state, stating that Mr. Broich’s application had been approved. Presumably, the debilitating injury occurred as a result of rescue and cleanup efforts following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The determination means that Mr. Broich will receive lifetime pension benefits from the state.

In general, the accidental September 11 disability retirement benefit for police officers is 75 percent of the officer’s final average salary, generally an average of the highest three consecutive years, according to Eric Sumberg, press secretary for the state comptroller’s office—and it is not taxable. Mr. Broich’s final average salary was never calculated because he was terminated; his last reported base annual salary was $114,000, according to Village Administrator Stephen Funsch.

Mr. Broich’s benefits were effective retroactively to June 2, 2008, Mr. Sumberg said last month. The office said a Freedom of Information Law request filed by The Press early last month for documents on the matter is still under legal review and could take until October to process.

In a letter to Village Hall dated May 12, Mr. Broich claimed that because of the state’s determination, the village should reinstate a slew of benefits related to his employment on the police force, including payment for accrued sick and vacation time. At the time of his termination, he had 260 unused sick days and 98 vacation days, totaling approximately $156,000, according to Mr. Funsch. In the same letter, Mr. Broich argued that he should receive medical, dental and optical insurance, a retired police sergeant’s identification, shield and pistol permit, and the return of handguns, among other benefits.

In a letter dated May 24, Mr. Funsch replied that Mr. Broich’s status with the village as a terminated employee remains unchanged by the retirement system’s determination, particularly in light of a recent legal upholding of that termination.

In the Human Rights Complaint, filed on July 1, Mr. Broich argues that Mayor Mark Epley and then-Police Captain Thomas Cummings discriminated against him by not restoring his benefits. On the form, Mr. Broich checked off that he believes he was discriminated against because of his disability, which he lists as asthma, and as retaliation for having filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit alleging reverse discrimination years ago. Mr. Broich also checked off that he was discriminated against because of his age (48), and national origin and race (American Indian).

He alleges that the Long Island World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program at Stony Brook University diagnosed his disability on February 17, 2007, and that the village “willfully and intentionally” withheld the results of his pre-employment physical exam—a document needed as part of the disability application—for more than two years, thereby delaying his receipt of state disability benefits.

The village had 15 days to respond to each allegation in the complaint, a deadline that would have been this week. Mr. Funsch said, however, that the village had received an extension to file a response. Jeltje DeJong of the Smithtown law firm Devitt Spellman Barrett, who is representing the village in the matter, declined to comment through a woman who answered the phone at her office on Tuesday.

World Trade Center benefits are available to responders who participated in the rescue, recovery or cleanup efforts at the World Trade Center and certain other sites, such as the city morgue. Several qualifying conditions are listed, including respiratory tract illnesses, such as asthma, gastroesophageal tract illnesses, such as reflux disease, psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, skin conditions such as burns, and new onset diseases, such as cancer.

“Unless it can be proven that the medical condition was the result of other factors, you can claim it was the result of your participation in the events of September 11 and after,” states the website describing the program.

Mr. Broich declined to comment on his claim or disability status, other than to say that he was involved in search-and-rescue operations. “Time is on my side and truth is on my side, so why rush?” he said this week.

According to Village Police records, Mr. Broich and his fellow officers participated in the search-and-rescue effort as volunteers and not part of their regular duties.

Mr. Broich had also sought disability status under the state retirement system in 2008, citing several on-the-job injuries that qualified him for disability benefits. The claim was denied in March.

According to a December 2, 2008, letter from then-Captain Cummings to the State Comptroller’s office opposing Mr. Broich’s disability application, “prior to or since his termination from employment, Broich had not given any notice to the department that he sustained an injury related to his response to the WTC site on or about 09/11/2001.”

It also states that with the exception of one 2003 injury, five undocumented injuries cited by Mr. Broich after his termination were “merely a dishonest attempt to illegitimately enhance his pension benefits.” Other police documents dispute the claims that the injuries Mr. Broich received were the result of on-duty accidents, including a claim that he acquired Lyme disease while doing surveillance work in a wooded area.

Mr. Sumberg said last month when asked of Mr. Broich’s duties in 2001 that Mr. Broich submitted a copy of a letter from the Village Police Department advising him to file a World Trade Center notice since he was engaged in rescue and recovery activities at the World Trade Center site. The letter, signed by then-Captain Cummings, advises all officers, whether they felt they were injured or not, to file the form with the state in case they developed a future disability.