A Washington State police officers convicted of murder and now serving life in prison draws a $3,100 tax-free pension check every month — and will for the rest of his life, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A deputy who, while waiting to learn if he’d be fired for allegedly beating his girlfriend, took advantage of extra work offered by his department to double his salary. His overtime-bloated pay now entitles him to a $63,000-a-year pension.
Bad cops have — and will continue to — cost King County and Washington millions of dollars, as publicly bankrolled salaries and taxpayer-subsidized pensions reap lucrative rewards for officers who’ve tainted the badge. A Post-Intelligencer examination of state pension and payroll records of eight King County sheriff’s deputies shows example after example of how such problem officers continued drawing salaries and earning service credits for years. That fattened retirements for these men, six of whom engaged in acts of misconduct so serious they could have been fired years earlier.
Link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/269669_pension11.asp