R.I. Retirement Board panel recommends rejecting accidental-disability pension for police officer

Dec. 08--PROVIDENCE -- A state Retirement Board subcommittee is recommending that the full board reject the accidental-disability pension request of a South Kingstown police officer who is the subject of the state's longest-running dispute over such a pension, now approaching its 10th year.

The recommendation came in response to a ruling by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear overturning the full Retirement Board's earlier denial of an accidental-disability pension for the officer, also an Operation Desert Storm veteran, who argues that his confrontation with a drunken-driving suspect in 2010 triggered post-traumatic stress disorder and left him unable to safely perform his duties.

Lanphear vacated the Retirement Board's decision denying a tax-free benefit to Damon Borrelli, who joined the South Kingstown force in 2002 and remains on injured-on-duty status. The board based its decision on a subcommittee's determination that Borrelli's PTSD existed before he was hired and was the result of prior traumatic experiences in his life, not the 2010 confrontation.

Lanphear faulted the board for failing to make findings of fact substantiating its position and for failing to consider commendations Borrelli had received as an officer, as well as psychological screening that cleared him for the position.

Lanphear noted "widely" conflicting medical opinions about the genesis of Borrelli's condition, but cited state Supreme Court precedent that a person is entitled to an accidental-disability pension if an on-the-job injury is the proximate cause of the purported disability.

In the eight years since Borrelli first claimed his disability, he has remained on injured-on-duty status and received $550,219 in salary, benefits and unused vacation time -- tax-free -- as of March 31, South Kingstown records show.

Until the matter is resolved, Borrelli will continue to receive his full salary, plus benefits. If the full board opts to grant him an accidental disability pension, he would then be entitled to two-thirds of the average of his three highest years' salaries -- also tax-free. The town could, however, seek to get that sum adjusted based on any earnings.

Borrelli, who was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1992, graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2011. He was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar in November 2016 and practices with the firm Lepizzera & Laprocina.

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