Posted on 12/13/2013 10:58:23 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
A former New Jersey Transit police officer who retired on disability after stapling his own hand is the subject of renewed scrutiny after a video emerged, showing him repeatedly firing a sniper rifle at a gun range.
In Christopher Onesti’s 2008 application for a disability pension, doctors said he was “permanently and totally disabled” because he would have trouble operating his service weapon and performing other police duties. His injuries stem from a firearms certification class two years earlier, where Onesti accidentally fired a staple into his non-shooting hand while preparing to attach a paper target to some cardboard.
The injury would “significantly impede his ability to fire a weapon, apprehend suspects, etc.,” wrote one doctor who signed Onesti’s disability application. Another doctor wrote that the patient “can no longer pull a gun, restrain a suspect, do crowd control [or] use handcuffs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcphiladelphia.com ...
It wasn’t his trigger finger!
“disability” is much abused and seen as a perk in most gov’t jobs.
Somebody pls post the video of the multi-amuptee Dem-Vet Congresswoman, just blasting this guy giving testimony for claiming “disability” for hearing loss, or some such!!
For every disability fraudster we read about, there are 99 others that haven’t been caught, yet. And most of them are/were in the public-sector.
It sounds like the NJ law is just stupid requiring either 100% or 0% disability.
A staple in the hand is worth 2 in the Bushmaster
"I FEEL YOUR PAIN!"
Its hard to understand someone being paid for not working because of a disability when so much effort has been put into getting employers to hire people with disabilities. There is something wrong with this picture.
There are 10 people legitimately on disability. The rest could go do something and get off of it.
A lot of things about that picture bother me. He is in uniform, sort of, and I doubt that he had a recent haircut and there is likely a Nav Reg about wearing ribbons on fatigues.
But what do I know about the Navy???
While they’re at it, pull the licenses from those two docs and review all cases where they provided medical “testimony.”
Where I live, it has become a joke. Whenever a policeman is involved in a shooting (justified or not), they invariably go for an early (disability) retirement. The reason given is that they are emotionally unable to carry a gun anymore because of the trauma they have seen. Invariably, the early retirement is granted. The youngest one I have seen so far was in his late 20’s.
A few years ago, one of the policemen who took an early disability retirement was caught as a gun-carrying security guard in a different state. He was allowed to keep his retirement, but had to resign the position and promise not to take another job that involved handling a weapon. I wonder how they are making sure he keeps his promise?
Back when I was a cab driver I had a friend (also a cab driver) who worked to find disability frauds. He carried a camcorder with him and took video of “disabled” people working. One was taped carrying shingles up a ladder.
Does he know NJ has a magazine with a capacity greater than fifteen rounds is prohibited law?
And that is the real problem - bureaucracies are as wasteful as it gets and force folks to make some moral compromises. I was in Fresno some years back and oranges were rotting on the trees. They had a frost which damaged 5%-10% of the crop and the feds would only compensate for 100% loss. Instead of taking a 10% hit, growers opted to let it all rot and get full compensation. If the Feds would move to a sliding system, even if some folks abused it, taxpayers would save billions each year.
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