Newtown ordered to pay long-term disability to officer
Hartford — A Connecticut state board has ruled that Newtown must pay long-term disability to a police officer who developed anxiety and depression after responding to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Thirty-eight-year-old Thomas Bean has been out on disability with post-traumatic stress disorder and has not worked since the massacre.
The Hartford Courant reports the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration ruled the police contract requires the town to pay Bean half his salary until retirement, an amount that will total more than $380,000. Newtown's insurance company is currently paying 50 percent of his salary through June 2015.
The town argued it was not required to pay Bean long-term disability.
Newtown's police chief recommended firing Bean when he could not return to work, but later withdrew the proposal.
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