N.J. responders to sue for mental health benefits

By Kate Coscarelli
The Star-Ledger

NEW JERSEY — With an eerie smile, an inmate made a detailed threat to rape New Jersey corrections officer Joseph Guadagno's wife, kill his daughter and turn him into a paraplegic — making specific reference to the location of his Hamilton home and family's business.

From the start of his career in law enforcement, Glynn Moore, a black state trooper, was called "black boot," heard his colleagues refer to minorities in derogatory terms and once had a Ku Klux Klan membership keychain left in his locker.

And when Trooper Robert Patterson was reassigned to the Hightstown station following a domestic violence incident with his girlfriend, a sergeant called him a "a piece of (expletive) rat" to the rest of the crew and ordered him out of the building.

All three say the incidents were so extreme they became depressed, traumatized and physically unable to work.

Now, they claim in lawsuits against the state that while they have no physical injuries, their on-the-job psychological traumas qualify them for accidental disability benefits, which are more generous than ordinary disability payments.

In a set of cases that could affect thousands of state workers, the officers' claims will go before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. The justices will be asked to decide whether injuries to mind and body should be treated alike in awarding disability benefits.

When it comes to injuries, mental ones are some of the most challenging for the courts to consider, said Julius Feinson, a former chairman of the workers' compensation section of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

"The issue has to do with trying to prove objectively something that is not always objective," he said. "Psychological claims are tougher because they rely on a person's subjective state of mind."

Attorneys for the state argue that to qualify for accidental disability, an employee must suffer an injury at a specific time and place that is more severe than the regular stresses of the job.

"A fundamental characteristic of the word 'accident' is that it is identifiable. The happening of an accident is observable, can be witnessed and is objectively measured ... It is external, something others can see and observe," said Deputy Attorney General Eileen DenBleyker in court papers.

Because accidental disability benefits pay two-thirds of a person's salary — rather than the 40 percent covered by ordinary disability benefits - extending the idea of traumatic event to psychological issues could lead to a flood of people trying to collect from the state's beleaguered pension system and invite fraud, the state argues.

Last year, there were 2,437 people in the Police and Firemen's Retirement System who collected $53.1 million in ordinary disability benefits. Far fewer, just 1,722, got accidental disability benefits, but the total bill was $59.7 million, according to state reports.

"Fraud is a real problem ... The financial incentives to pursue accidental disability over ordinary disability are substantial," DenBleyker said.

Lawyers for the workers say New Jersey already has safety checks in place to make sure people don't cheat the system.

A person claiming accidental disability for psychological injuries must provide medical reports as proof — just as they are required in cases involving physical ailments, said Nancy Whatley Griffin, who represents Moore.

"They can't just make a claim. That claim has to be verified with the state's physicians ... Protections against the so-called floodgates are already in place," she said.

More than any legal reason, lawyers for the disabled workers say it is simply common sense to include purely psychological injuries on the list of things that qualify for accidental benefits.

Today's society has embraced the idea that psychological injuries can be severe. And from a legal standpoint, several other states, such as Iowa, New York and Massachusetts, have made accommodations to include psychological injuries in disability situations, said Jerome Ballarotto, who represents Patterson, the trooper who gained 100 pounds and fell into a major depression after a sergeant derided him.

"I don't see the significance of needing to have a physical injury to validate a psychic injury. In this day and age, we have gone way beyond that. Would we say a stubbed toe is more serious than a psychological injury?" he asked. "The profession has validated the severity and disabling nature of psychic injury."