Labor unions are always big on workmen's compensation programs, and at its root, the concept is fair enough. You get injured on the job, you're entitled not only to special medical care for the injury, but also to keep earning wages - or some portion - while recuperating. But the bargain is that you really have to be injured while getting paid not to work. A Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District bus driver named Johnny Chavarria has been charged with fraud and grand theft, following the revelation - yesterday in the Santa Cruz Sentinel - that he reportedly ran in the Big Sur Marathon - and other races - while on "temporary total disabled" status with pay after a back injury.

Chavarria of Salinas injured his back while driving a bus for the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, the District Attorney's Office said. He was arrested Friday and is charged with fraud and grand theft following an investigation into the injury claim he filed in June 2003. "You can't run marathons if you are not well enough to drive a Metro bus," said District Attorney Bob Lee. "It's not just wrong; it's criminal." Chavarria began receiving payments from the fund after being rated at "temporary total disabled," and he continued receiving payments until he returned to work in July 2004, according to the District Attorney's Office. Investigators are still trying to determine how much money he obtained. Chavarria could not be reached for comment.

Investigators working for the insurance company that paid Chavarria's claim said the bus driver ran at least one other marathon as well as several 10K running races while off work. Those activities were not recommended by the driver's physicians, according to the District Attorney's Office.

"We talked to a couple of his doctors, and they don't think running 10Ks or marathons is good" for rehabilitating his injury, Lee said. Chavarria was released Friday from Santa Cruz County Jail after posting $25,000 bail. He is due in court later this month. Lee said his office is investigating several other cases of workers' compensation fraud. "The workers' compensation fund is there for a reason: to help make sure people can support themselves and their families while they're rehabilitating from an injury," Lee said. "We're working to protect it."

Meanwhile, a former California Highway Patrol officer has been convicted for workman's comp fraud; he took place in a terrorism training drill while on disability leave.

A Boston-area bus driver has been indicted on one count of workers comp fraud and one of larcency, for an alleged disability scam pulled several years earlier when he was working as a mover. Just the sort you want on a public payroll now.

A West Virginia school bus driver has been convicted on two felony counts related to a false workman's comp claim; he claimed injury exiting a school bus, but prosecutors say it happened when he jumped off a bulldozer used in a private contracting job.

A truck operator for the Glendale, California Department of Water and Power was convicted on two felony counts of workman's comp fraud. After going on disability from a reported ankle sprain, and claiming he needed crutches to move around, he was seen walking normally, doing yard work, and stomping his feet.

As we see, public employees are at the center of many of the recent workers compensation fraud cases in the news. Hmmm.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SANTA CRUZ, WORKERS COMPENSATION FRAUD, GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 9, 2006 10:53 AM

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