HAMILTON — Former township police officer Joseph Derrico has lost his tax-free disability pension following an examination by doctors that found him no longer permanently disabled, officials said yesterday.

The state Police and Firemen’s Retirement System board of trustees voted unanimously on Monday that Derrico’s disability did not exist anymore, and suspended his $5,808.61 monthly payouts.

Derrico resigned from the force in October 2010, three months after he was indicted on a charge of receiving stolen property. He applied for and was accepted into a disability retirement worth $70,000 annually, but when video of him running after a monster truck and wrestling on a reality TV show surfaced earlier this year, the PFRS board ordered an investigation.

In most disability cases, Monday’s vote would clear an employee to go back to work, but Derrico’s resignation remains in effect, Hamilton business administrator John Ricci said.

“So he resigned with disciplinary charges pending, which happens,” Ricci said. “We don’t have to take him back … but he doesn’t have a pension anymore.”

The suspension of Derrico’s pension is a first for the agency, said John Sierchio, a Bloomfield police sergeant and member of the PFRS board of trustees.

“People see this type of fraud, and it really opens up their eyes,” he said.

Derrico co-owned Hiram’s Gold and Coin Exchange on North Olden Avenue in Ewing, where in 2010 Hamilton detectives traced jewelry stolen during a township burglary. Some of the items were recovered, but Derrico allegedly told the victim of the burglary as she stood next to the investigating detectives that the more valuable pieces were likely accidentally thrown away.

Following an Internal Affairs investigation, the 20-year law enforcement veteran was indicted on the receiving stolen property charge. A criminal case was never brought, and Derrico’s resignation led the departmental charges to be dropped, according to a letter from the township’s law director released to The Times as part of an Open Public Records Act request.

Derrico was collecting his disability pension while he was cast as a minor character in the reality TV show "Bear Swamp Recovery." Portions of the show about Mercer County repo men, one of whom was Derrico's partner in the gold buying business, were posted to YouTube recently and show him running, wrestling and grappling.

"When this first came out, we had him re-evaluated," Sierchio said.

Derrico was sent back to the doctor who originally examined him, and the doctor said Derrico was no longer disabled. The decision was sustained by a medical review board made up exclusively of medical professionals before it was sent to the PFRS board for approval.

Sierchio, who spent 17 years as a union representative, said towns and law enforcement agencies use disability retirements as enticements for officers facing criminal charges to leave the job.

“Hamilton and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office — they used the state pension system to get rid of their problem,” he said.

The prosecutor’s office has declined comment on the case. Derrico could not be reached for comment last night.

Sierchio said he is pleased with the 10-0 vote that rescinded Derrico's disability.

"At the end of the day, all the board agrees there's a problem with the system, and it needs to be fixed," Sierchio said.

Statewide, at least 5,300 retired police officers and firefighters are on disability, netting pension payouts that total $198 million per year and grow at $20 million annually, Sierchio said.

“These guys are playing in the rules of the game. The rules need to change,” Sierchio said.

Though the application from Hamilton to PFRS released as part of the OPRA notes the dates of Derrico’s suspension, medical review board, and documentation sent to the board of trustees, the indictment is not noted.

“We disclosed it to the state, the indictment,” Ricci said.

Sierchio said cases such as Derrico’s are a disservice to truly police and firefighters with disabilities as well as state taxpayers.

"Is this one in a million?" Sierchio asked. "No, I don't believe this is one in a million. I think there are a lot of people out there who are using the system to fill their needs."



Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.

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