Free Republic

Add a runner who recently competed in an Escape from Alcatraz triathlon to the rogues gallery of NYPD cops who retired on a taxpayer-funded disability pension. Rachel Niccoll, who spent 13 years on the force before retiring in 2009, receives the generous pension package that pays her $66,083 a year, plus benefits — and also regularly runs races in New York, records show. The New York City Police Pension Fund confirmed Niccoll — who worked in the 24th Precinct on the Upper West Side — received the disability pension but would not reveal the nature of her injury. Online records...

On Dec. 7, 2009, New York State Police narcotics investigator Richard O’Brien fell off a ladder while fixing his mother’s roof. He lived for only three more hours after the fall — but in that brief time, fellow troopers tried to have him retired on disability. Now, Stephanie O’Brien, his widow, is fighting in court, saying a faulty fax machine and a measly seven minutes mean she and the couple’s daughter would get a $342,000 death payout — rather than lifetime benefits that could total in the millions. The case is the first involving an officer filing for a disability...

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...