Target 12: Feel the Burn

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A retired Providence firefighter collecting a tax-free disability pension for an on-the-job shoulder injury is a dedicated weightlifter, an undercover Target 12 investigation has discovered.

John Sauro, 48, of Cranston, retired from the fire department in October 2000 and was awarded an accidental disability pension for an injured right shoulder. He takes home about $3,800 a month tax-free in pension payments. The city also pays $1,800 a month for his health insurance.

• Projo Editorial: Sauro rehabilitation regime

Undercover video taken by Target 12 show Sauro working out at a local gym over a week's time. It reveals him doing an exercise routine that includes lifting 205 pounds on an incline bench, performing shoulder exercises with a combined 150 pounds in dumbbells, and hanging by his arms to do leg raises.

Asked why he could no longer perform his duties as a firefighter even though he was a weightlifter, Sauro said he was disabled "as far as being a firefighter."

• Watch: Undercover video of John Sauro's workout
• More : Taveras may crack down on disability pensions

"[I hurt myself] carrying someone down three flights of stairs," Sauro said. He claimed he hurt his shoulder and back and suffered "a blown-out knee."

Target 12 has learned Sauro's pension file makes no mention of a knee injury.

Sauro is one of 438 Providence retirees who were asked by city officials to get their injury "recertified" as part of a 2008 ordinance designed to crack down on fraudulent disability claims.

Target 12 has learned that 918 retirees collecting an accidental disability pension were asked to recertify their injuries in 2009 and 2010. Of those, 824 "provided documentation," according to City Hall. But not a single pension was overturned or even reexamined as a result of the annual survey.

The law requires that retirees collecting accidental disability pensions fill out a "Continuing Statement of Disability." City officials confirmed Sauro was recertified after filling out the proper paperwork last year.

• PDF: See the city's injury recertification form

The form asks retirees to list the nature of the injury and to say if they have been examined by a doctor in the last year. It then asks them to attach a medical report filled out by a doctor. A letter that accompanies the form tells the retirees they can use a doctor of their choice.

"The medical report does not have to come from the doctor who examined you relative to your original disability," states the letter, signed by the city's pension administrator. "Any doctor that has recently examined you can verify your disability."

A March report on Providence's financial crisis commissioned by Mayor Angel Taveras recommended the city independently review injuries rather than accept the word of a doctor chosen by the retiree.

Providence Retirement Board officials say any retiree who fails to respond to the recertification request is asked to fill out the form again the next year.

If the requests are ignored for three years, the pension administrator can forward the retiree's name to the board, which would then have the option of ordering the retiree to have his or her injury examined by a city-picked doctor.

City Councilman John Igliozzi was the author of the 2008 disability ordinance and is a member of the Providence Retirement Board, though he was not on the board when Sauro's pension was awarded a decade ago. He said the recertification process needs to be reexamined.

"It's not working as it was designed," Igliozzi said. "But the Retirement Board has the option to bring his pension up to question [him about it] again, so that can be done immediately."

After seeing Target 12's undercover video, Igliozzi said he plans to bring Sauro's pension to the attention of the board.

"It's just another sad example of someone taking advantage of the Providence taxpayer," he said. "It's clear that individual's accidental disability needs to be revisited immediately."

Paul Doughty, president of the Providence firefighters union, said it was too soon to say what action, if any, should be taken in this case.

"Sauro still remains a question mark, because we don't know what's going to happen with him at the end of the day," Doughty said, adding that he was "not aware of any fraudulent disabilities" among retired firefighters.

The Retirement Board is authorized to order a disabled retiree back to work or to downgrade his or her benefit to a regular, taxable service pension if that person has reached retirement age; at 48 years old, Sauro has not.

twhite@wpri.com