William Marx was employed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for 21 years and was a member of the SWAT team during the last ten years of his employment. In August 2018, Marx was involved in a shooting with an armed suspect who was barricaded inside the bathroom of an apartment for about 14…
Jason Cooling is a police officer in the City of Torrington, Connecticut. In February of 2004, Cooling joined the United States Marine Corps. In 2006 and 2011, Cooling served in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. As a result of those military tours of duty, Cooling suffered multiple disabling injuries including PTSD. On January…
Sergeant Samuel Velez Ortiz worked for the Florida Department of Corrections. Velez Ortiz became a patient of Dr. Justin Davis, who is licensed by the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to recommend medical marijuana use. After consulting with Dr. Davis, Velez Ortiz sought and obtained a valid medical marijuana-use registration card from the DOH based…
Michael Holliday served eight years in the Marine Corps and was honorably discharged in 2003. He served one combat tour in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003. Holliday was diagnosed with PTSD in the summer of 2017. On December 16, 2017, while employed by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) in Louisiana as a Lieutenant, Holliday’s neighbor Nihaya Mansour – who had…
Allison Shuff is a police officer for the City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On January 6, 2016, Shuff filed a workers’ compensation claim alleging that she suffered an injury in the form of depression and PTSD based on two incidents that occurred in the course and scope of her employment. Both incidents involved Shuff’s failure to…
Christopher Rocap began working as a New Jersey State Police trooper in 1993. In 2001, he joined the Technical Emergency and Mission Specialist Unit (TEAMS), which specializes in dangerous and technical assignments. Rocap’s experiences with TEAMS included rescuing persons trapped in burning buildings, recovering the bodies of drowning victims, engaging and talking down suicidal persons,…
Brian Carver was employed by the Jackson Police Department in Mississippi as a patrolman for 20 years. In 2004, Carver fatally shot a suspect. After his two required visits to a psychologist, Carver was cleared to return to work, where he experienced physical and mental health issues while on duty. The first time Carver experienced…
Christopher Staford was a Crest Hill police officer in Illinois. He was working as a patrol officer on December 11, 2010, when he and a suspect exchanged gunfire. During the incident, Staford’s gun jammed. Shortly after the incident, Staford went to the emergency room, where he complained of feeling “rattled” and “very anxious.” He was…
A case involving Huntington Firefighter John Angle shows the difficulty of establishing a PTSD workers’ compensation claim in a state with a “physical injury” statute such as West Virginia. Several states have workers’ compensation laws similar to Section 23-4 of the West Virginia Code, which provides that “no alleged injury or disease shall be recognized…
Detective Christopher Sardo worked for the Village of Franklin Park, Illinois. Sardo served in the United States Marine Corps from 1987 to 1991, including a tour of duty in Desert Storm. Besides physical danger, his service exposed him to several traumatic events, including fellow Marines being shot at and killed. After his discharge, Sardo experienced…
Kimberly Nelson, a Chicago police officer, responded to a dispatch report that there was a “possible kidnapping of a FedEx driver” on 80th Street. Nelson inquired where exactly on 80th Street the incident had occurred. Eventually, the dispatcher replied, “Units in 6, we have a robbery, an armed robbery of a FedEx driver, 708 East…
In June 2017, Gila County, Arizona deputy sheriff John France and another deputy were dispatched to a residence to investigate a person threatening to kill himself with a shotgun. When they arrived at the house, a man burst through the doorway between them, holding a shotgun in a shooting stance.The man rushed toward France, his…
Isaiah Cardinale was an officer with the police department in Nutley Township, New Jersey. In December 2013, Cardinale submitted to a random drug test. Two days later, Cardinale admitted to using cocaine. The Department immediately suspended him pending the results of the test, and Cardinale successfully completed drug and alcohol treatment in Florida. In February…
Jesse Diaz was a firefighter for Trenton, New Jersey. Diaz, who is Hispanic, was well-regarded by his colleagues and supervisors, and he enjoyed their camaraderie and support. That changed after Diaz overheard a white firefighter named Plumeri use a racist term in reference to an African-American colleague. Although the colleague was not present, Diaz thought…
Benjamin Pitts was a police officer with the City of Chandler, Arizona. In May 2013, Pitts was on duty in his patrol vehicle with his fiancée, who was participating in a ride-along. That evening, Pitts received a call that there was a man acting in a disorderly manner and possibly brandishing a gun outside Chandler…
Humberto Valdes was a lieutenant in the City of Doral, Florida Police Department. All lieutenants in the Department worked eight-hour shifts; Valdes was assigned to the afternoon shift. While on duty in March 2009, Valdes was involved in a car crash. After the crash, Valdes developed a panic disorder and began seeing a psychiatrist for…
In November 2012, thirteen police officers engaged in a high-speed car chase in Cleveland, Ohio. When the car finally came to a stop, the officers fired 139 bullets into the vehicle, killing the two African-American suspects inside. The media started reporting the story, framing it as twelve Caucasian officers and one Hispanic officer shooting and…
Beginning in 2002, Charles Kimzey worked as a paramedic for Vashon Island Fire and Rescue in Washington. In June 2012, Kimzey was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He then filed a claim for benefits with Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries for an “Industrial Injury or Occupational Disease.” Kimzey stated in his application that his…
Under New York law as well as the law in several other states, for a stress disability to be covered by workers’ compensation, the stress experienced by the employee must be greater than that which usually occurs in the normal work environment. A recent case involving the East Greenbush, New York, Police Department demonstrated how…
How post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claims are treated by workers’ compensation and pension laws varies widely across the country. Some states require only that an employee prove that PTSD was caused by the job. At the other end of the spectrum, the most conservative states require that the employee actually be physically injured in the…
The workers’ compensation or pension systems of different states have a variety of standards for evaluating claims for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the strictest standards requires a firefighter or law enforcement officer to prove not just that they have PTSD which has been caused by the job, but that the PTSD arose alongside…
While Philip Payes, a Pennsylvania state trooper, was working on November 29, 2006, a woman who apparently was mentally disturbed ran in front of his vehicle. Payes attempted to resuscitate the woman after she was struck by his patrol car but the incident resulted in a fatality. Payes filed a workers’ compensation claim for post-traumatic…
In Pennsylvania, for an employee to succeed in bringing a workers’ compensation claim for a psychological disability, the employee must ordinarily show that the disability “was more than a subjective reaction to normal working conditions.” Pennsylvania courts have struggled for years trying to apply this standard to public safety employees. The case of Rodney Washington…
Under New Jersey law, public safety officers who suffer from an “accidental” disability are entitled to a higher pension than those suffering from other disabilities. In the case of stress disabilities, the rule is that the disability must result “from direct personal experience of a terrifying or horror-inducing event that involves actual or threatened death…
William Biasetti was a police officer with the Stamford, Connecticut Police Department. On May 24, 2005, Biasetti was involved in a high-speed car chase on Interstate 95 during a torrential rainstorm. At the conclusion of the high-speed chase, Biasetti was engaged in a gun battle with the suspects and was in fear of losing his…
