A 13-year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department has been indicted on charges that he collected a quarter million dollars in workers' compensation even while battling blazes and rising through the ranks to become chief of the Bethpage Volunteer Fire Department.
Michael Forman, 39, of Bethpage, was arraigned Monday in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead on two counts of second-degree grand larceny, three counts of second-degree insurance fraud, three charges of defrauding the government, six counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, two charges of second-degree offering a false instrument and six charges of violating workers' compensation law.
Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said Forman stretched heavy fire hoses, raised ladders, broke down doors and participated in search and rescue drills, all within a few miles of Suffolk County. Spota said he has even received reports that Forman was certified in scuba diving since 2003.
"My heavens ... he was flaunting this," Spota said. "We have a lot of police officers who have been seriously injured and many of them come back to work as soon as they possibly can. And here is a person who is basically a fraud."
The grand larceny charges are each punishable by a maximum of 5 to 15 years in prison. County Court Judge Barbara Kahn released Forman without bail.
Neither Forman nor his attorney, Stephen Scaring of Garden City, returned calls for comment yesterday.
Forman, who worked for most of his career in the Third Precinct in Bay Shore, took a leave from the department in February 2003 after an injury to his right wrist while making an arrest, prosecutors said. He claimed at the time that the injury prevented his driving his patrol car, using his gun or even working behind a desk.
The injury was apparently not enough to keep him from remaining active in his local fire department.
Forman responded to about 200 calls since his injury, prosecutors said, and in January was named chief of the department. Investigators said department officials were not aware that Forman was collecting the workers' comp funds, which totaled about $250,000, tax free.
Calls to department chiefs were not returned yesterday.
The police department suspended Forman with pay following his arrest. Repeating a phrase he used then, Police Commissioner Richard Dormer yesterday called the indictment "a sad day for the Suffolk County Police Department."
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