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Nothing unusual about that. People get paid all the time under work/comp that were 100% responsible for their own accident.
http://www.bnd.com/2010/09/21/140836...-with-his.html
Former Illinois State trooper Matt Mitc is asking the state to compensate him for injuries from a crash in which he hit and killed two Collinsville sisters at triple-digit speeds.
Mitc filed a worker's compensation case on Sept. 13 against the Illinois State Police. The case is pending.
"I wouldn't have filed the case if I thought it was frivolous or didn't have merit," said Kerri O'Sullivan, of the St. Louis firm of Brown and Crouppen, who represents Mitc . "People get hurt at work all the time. It's our job as lawyers to help people with the difficult and complicated administrative process of worker's compensation."
hree worker's compensation lawyers say they believe Mitc could receive compensation for the injuries he received in a Nov. 23, 2007, high-speed crash that resulted in the deaths of sisters Kelli and Jessica Uhl and injured Kelly and Christine Marler, of Fayetteville.
Thomas Q. Keefe, a Belleville lawyer who represented the Uhl girls' parents, Kimberly Schlau and Brian Uhl, in a civil lawsuit against the State Police, called Mitc 's claim "outrageous, but predictable."
"This man has no shame. He has no shame when he recanted his plea of guilty. He has no shame when he insisted on the stand that he was not responsible for this crash," Keefe said. "And he has no shame when he files for worker's compensation benefits."
Mitc was driving 126 mph in busy day-after-Thanksgiving traffic on Interstate 64 near O'Fallon while sending and receiving e-mails and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone moments before the crash. Mitc was responding to an accident near Lebanon, but help already was at the scene of the accident where Mitc was responding, authorities said.
Mitc crossed over the median and hit the girls' car head-on. He sustained severe leg injuries.
After the accident, Mitc was suspended with pay for nearly two years, drawing his $68,000 annual salary. He resigned from the Illinois State Police after pleading guilty to the criminal charges.
Mitc pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and reckless driving in exchange for a sentence of 30 months probation.
Although Mitc pleaded guilty to causing the accident, he can still receive a worker's compensation award, three lawyers agreed, saying that the only defense the state may have is whether or not Mitc was doing his job as a state trooper when the accident occurred.
"If the accident occurred in the furtherance of the function of your employer, even if it was done in a negligent manner, it can be compensible under the Worker's Compensation Act," said Rod Thompson, a Belleville worker's compensation attorney.
"If an accident arises out of the course and scope of a person's employment, the employee is en led to worker's compensation, despite their poor judgment," said Bruce R. Cook, a Belleville lawyer who handles worker's compensation cases.
Ian Elfenbaum, a Chicago lawyer, said an employee can be under the influence of drugs or alcohol when an injury occurs and still collect worker's comp benefits.
"You can be reckless and even negligent while working in the course and scope of your employment," said Elfenbaum. "Negligence or recklessness on the part of the employee is not a defense for the employer."
During the hearing on the civil suit filed by the Uhls' parents in the Illinois Court of Claims, the Illinois attorney general, who represented the state police in the suit, signed a stipulation agreeing that, despite his plea to the criminal charges, Mitc was acting in his capacity as a state trooper when the accident occurred.
"That admission seals the deal," Thompson said. "That's all you need to get a compensible injury."
During the April Court of Claims hearing, Mitc denied that he was responsible for the crash, despite pleading guilty three days earlier to reckless homicide and reckless driving charges.
Illinois worker's compensation was designed to allow injured workers easier access to health benefits and awards, Cook said, adding that "this claim is an insult to taxpayers and those two girls' families."
Under the Illinois Worker's Compensation Act, each injured body part is assigned a number of weeks of pay, and a hearing officer determines the percent of each injured body part.
For example, a hearing officer could determine that a person suffered a 50-percent loss of a leg. If the employee's gross salary was $60,000, he would receive 107.50 weeks at 60 percent of their weekly salary, or $74,423. But it could be an even greater award if the hearing officer finds Mitc sustained a permanent total disability or finds the state must pay the difference between the amount that he earns now and the amount he earned as a state trooper.
That could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, Keefe said, that will be paid by the taxpayers and subject to being taxed.
"But he still has to get out of bed every day and know that he caused the death of those two girls, and know that he didn't take responsibility for that," Keefe said. "He still has to look himself in the mirror and think about the fact his actions forever took two girls away from their parents, then he filed for worker's compensation benefits."
Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/09/21/140836...#ixzz10BZXIOfD
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S bags like this are why cops have such a bad name in this country.
I hate that being a cop gives you the right to flout the law and be protected by it whenever you do something that would have a normal person in jail for years.
Nothing unusual about that. People get paid all the time under work/comp that were 100% responsible for their own accident.
. That. Guy.
true. i am sure that there are many people who put themselves at risk due to their own negligence (and even deceit) at the job and, despite this, continue to draw workers comp.
That is, more or less, the way I was looking at it. Ive had employees get granted compensation for being complete jackasses on our property.
What separates this story form those, however, is that this cop killed 2 young girls while being negligent.
I'd deny the claim, but thats a personal opinion, not a legal conclusion.
Criminal negligence that resulted in the deaths of two other people? You're saying if I go to a construction site as an employee, grab a nail gun and start firing in random directions, putting one through my toe and another guy through the temple, killing him instantly, that I should be en led not only to walk free, but to get money for it?
If he was not a cop, he wouldn't be getting compensation because he'd be in jail for involuntary manslaughter.
If an employee driving one of my company trucks blew a red light and t-boned someone, killing them, I would not only get sued by the the dead persons family but I would have to pay workmans comp on the employee. Thats just the way it is. I didn't say it was right.
hang 'em high
I'd give him the compensation but he should have to figure out how to spend it while rotting in prison for life.
the cop did receive 30 months probation and firing a nail gun in random directions is absolutely not the same thing.
If not for the power of the unions, this would be different.
Not if he is found at fault in the incident. Otherwise, you would see people doing this all the time. If you blow a red light and someone dies, you're up for manslaughter charges.
You're right. Driving 126 mph in a large car with pre-Thanksgiving day traffic while not looking at the road is a lot more dangerous than shooting tiny nails through the air at random. Again, an "average" person gets at least 6 months in jail from this, minimum, probably more like 1-2 years. Involuntary manslaughter, wreckless endangerment, and vehicular homicide.
How does the cop only get probation after killing 2 people? That's the part I don't get.
It's because there the law and have numerous connections within the judicial system. He probably knows a couple of lawyers who are tight with the prosecuters and judges,etc.
right. and if it's in a CC owned work truck while heading to a job site, CC will also get sued and may have to pay workman's comp on top of that.
He was tried and convicted in a court of law. I might also say a rich person with an excellent lawyer might get the same deal or better.You're right. Driving 126 mph in a large car with pre-Thanksgiving day traffic while not looking at the road is a lot more dangerous than shooting tiny nails through the air at random. Again, an "average" person gets at least 6 months in jail from this, minimum, probably more like 1-2 years. Involuntary manslaughter, wreckless endangerment, and vehicular homicide.
In this case, the cop was heading to the scene of an accident. He did it in a grossly reckless manner, but he was still on the job.
I can tell you though, that firing a nail gun at random and killing someone will definitely get you manslaughter and several years jail time no matter who you are, in pretty much any state.
Not if the guy is rotting in prison, he doesn't.
Doesn't that reinforce the point I'm making, though? I can't even tell if you're attempting to refute what I'm saying or not here.He was tried and convicted in a court of law. I might also say a rich person with an excellent lawyer might get the same deal or better.
If he would have hopped a curb and plowed through an elementary school playground, killing 20 kids, would it be equally acceptable because he's "on the job"? How is this a legitimate defense? You can be as stupid as you want and kill as many people as you want as long as you're "at work" and not on your own time?In this case, the cop was heading to the scene of an accident. He did it in a grossly reckless manner, but he was still on the job.
How is a car moving at 126 mph on a busy interstate any less dangerous than the above situation with a nailgun? You hit someone in another car at this speed, they're dead unless they're in a much, much larger vehicle than you. , that could even kill someone if they're in an H1.I can tell you though, that firing a nail gun at random and killing someone will definitely get you manslaughter and several years jail time no matter who you are, in pretty much any state.
What a in piece of . He is a cop after all...what more can we expect? Human beings don't come much lower than that...as if killing two innocent girls wasn't enough to make him man up and recognize his own worthlessness.
Cry Havoc, you are confusing criminal law with civil law. You are also confusing what seems intuitively "right" with what the law actually is. Things can get pretty ed up. The cop will win his workers comp claim, and his employer (The state) will more than likely settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit with the survivors of the people that were killed/injured in the wreck.
Blake is the worst troll on this site... and I don't even think he's trolling.
What the guy did was completely ed up and wrong. Whatever laws protected him against getting put into jail for manslaughter are ed up and wrong laws as well. Anyone who says otherwise is obviously failing to put themselves in the shoes of the daughters parents. 126MPH is a reckless speed that he shouldn't even be thinking about his cell phone while driving this fast. What makes it all the more ridiculous is that there was already help at the scene.
It truly is unfair that this man is not dead.
no. i did not say that all. i am not arguing the ethics of the law here at all. i was simply stating that based on the precedents set by other cases, where employees have won suits against their employers despite a large degree of culpability created by the indivuduals filing the claims, it is not to far-fetched to believe that he will be granted the money.
don't get upset at me just because i accept the reality of an absurd legal system.
BTW, using your nail gun example, if a guy was on the job site and nailed his foot to the floor purely out of his own carelessness he would still collect all the benefits of workmans comp...medical bills, time off, etc.
So I'm the worst troll but apparently I'm not trolling.
If he was actually "working".
If he was firing random shots in the air as Havoc suggested, then I have a hard time believing he would collect workmans comp.......although it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere someone like that actually has collected..
I believe you are confusing with what is "right" and what is "law".
I dont like it anymore than you do, but that is the system at its worst. Pedophiles are released early everyday from prisons all over the country to make room for crimes much less severe (and off-putting), but that is the system (especially when you consider the recidivism rate of pedophiles).
Do I like the system? No, absolutely not, no thread in the history of the internet could encompass all the needed changes to make it better and even then it will still be horribly, outrageously flawed.
Life sucks, get a helmet.
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