This story has been updated from the original version posted at 1:43 pm to include additional details from the arbitration document, and comments from Newtown Police Union President Scott Ruszczyk and First Selectman Pat Llodra, among other additions.

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The State Board of Mediation & Arbitration has awarded long-term disability pay extending to 2025 to a former Newtown police officer, who left his job after the December 2012 shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Officer Thomas Bean stated that he was unable to continue work as a policeman after having suffered the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the intensity of the shooting incident.

As a result of the decision, Bean, now age 40, is slated to receive long-term disability payments from the town, with those payments running until November 2025.

According to the text of the arbitration decision, “Granting the union’s remedy would result in eleven years of payments until Mr Bean’s retirement date, which amounts to a total of $380,797.”

“The town claims it would be ‘absurd’ to believe that the town would assume the risk of such a substantial payout,” the arbitrators wrote.

It was initially unclear how much money the town would actually be required to pay Bean as a result of the arbitration decision. Two town officials confirmed to The Bee on May 21 that the total liability to local taxpayers will amount to less than $32,000. Human Resources Director Carole Ross said that the net cost to the town will be $288.48 per month for nine years.

Bean started work as a Newtown police officer in November 2000. He had previously worked as an emergency services radio dispatcher for the town.

A document listing the state board’s May 18 arbitration panel decision was disclosed on May 21. A hearing on Bean’s claim was conducted last year.

Bean has been receiving half-pay from the town’s insurance company while on long-term disability. But those disability payments were set to expire in June.

Because the town challenged Bean’s claim that he was due to receive long-term disability pay until 2025, the matter was submitted to the state board for an arbitrated decision. Such decisions are binding and cannot be appealed in court.

Insurance Coverage

The town’s insurance coverage did not provide for such an extended period of a police officer receiving half-pay, only allowing such payments to run for two years.

In the arbitration proceeding, Bean was represented by an attorney for the Newtown Police Union, Local 3153, Council 15, AFSCME.

Union President Scott Ruszczyk said May 21, “The union is happy with the decision.”

“Not only is it a victory for the union, but a victory for the integrity of the collective bargaining agreement,” he said.

“Tom was not looking for a handout, he was simply looking for the town to live up to its contractual obligations,” Mr Ruszczyk said.

When reached Thursday afternoon, First Selectman Pat Llodra said she had “not had a chance to read the labor decision and have not yet had a chance to consult with our labor attorney in terms of next steps.

“Both of these actions are necessary in order for me to comment with any depth of knowledge or understanding,” Mrs Llodra said.

The arbitration panel members were Douglas Cho, Richard Podurgiel, and Raymond Shea. The panel voted to award Bean long-term disability payments until 2025 in a 2-1 vote, with Podurgiel dissenting.

The issue decided by the arbitrators was whether the town violated its labor contact with the police union by notifying Bean that his long-term disability payments for emotional disability would end in June 2015, after two years of receiving those benefits.

The panel decided that the remedy is to have the town pay Bean half-pay for long-term disability until November 2025, which is the point in time at which he would have been eligible for retirement from the  police departments with full pension benefits.

The three-year police labor contract covering the matter expired on June 30, 2014.

After reviewing the facts of the case, the arbitration panel decided that Bean was entitled to receive long-term disability payments for mental illness disability, as allowed under the terms of the union contract, without being subject to any two-year limitation.

After Bean left work following 12/14, his psychiatrist stated that Bean’s reaction to the shootings at Sandy Hook School had left Bean fully disabled and thus unable to return to work as a police officer.

In a 2013 statement, Bean said, “The town government is doing everything they can to make this more difficult on me and my family, simply because they did not get the proper long-term [disability] insurance policy that is in line with our union contract.”

“The union contract says that I am supposed to receive 50 percent of my salary until my normal retirement date. The town only has a two-year [disability] policy. The town attorney recently told the union that the town will not negotiate with us and will not pay beyond the two years. The town attorney stated that the union or myself would have to take them to court,” Bean then said.

“I do not have the training or experience to make [the pay] I was making as a police officer, so new on-the-job experience is what I am going to need, and that is going to need to start before [the town stops] paying me in two years,” he said in 2013.

In December 2013, Police Chief Michael Kehoe reversed his earlier position and decided against pursuing job termination against Bean. The police chief’s earlier recommendation to terminate Bean had drawn public criticism.

Police officials then declined to discuss the withdrawal of the termination recommendation, terming  the topic a “personnel matter” that is protected from public disclosure under the terms of the state Freedom of Information Act.