Ex-RI Firefighter Gets Probation for Pension Fraud

April 18, 2018
Former firefighter Paul Labbadia received probation and must pay $200,000 in restitution to North Providence and the state's retirement system.

April 18 — PROVIDENCE, RI — A former fire chief in Coventry and Johnston was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution to the Town of North Providence and the state retirement system Tuesday after pleading no contest to charges he illegally obtained a pension for his time as a North Providence firefighter.

Judge Netti T. Vogel sentenced former North Providence firefighter Paul Labbadia to two three-year and one one-year suspended prison sentences, all to be served at the same time.

Vogel also ordered Labbadia pay restitution of $147,133 to the town and $51,711 to the state retirement system. She approved repayment agreements that lawyers for Labbadia, the town and the state had reached. They called for Labbadia to make a $34,578 payment toward his town debt Tuesday and gave him three years to repay the rest.

Vogel gave Labbadia three years to repay the state $51,711 for improperly obtained retirement benefits. But she added the proviso that if Labbadia ever qualified for another state pension in those three years, the state system could garnish up to 40 percent of it to help pay his state restitution.

Labbadia spoke briefly, telling Vogel, "I'm sorry for my mistake."

Since Labbadia was charged in 2015, he has been publicly humiliated, financially broken and seen his record in a cherished career tarnished, said John DeSimone, his lawyer.

"He's paid dearly for this mistake," DeSimone said.

Labbadia, 52, pleaded no contest in January to two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and one count of filing a false document. They were related to his exaggerating his time in the North Providence Fire Department's on-call system in order to reach the 20-year service requirement for retirement benefits.

He claimed three more years in the town's on-call fire service than records showed he served, and that extra time gave him the one year's full-time credit he needed to get the needed 20 years of service.

After leaving North Providence, Labbadia went on to become chief in Johnston from 2005 to 2006 and then in Coventry in 2009. His tenure in Coventry ended after a report on WPRI-TV that allegedly showed Labbadia drinking alcohol and playing golf during work hours, using his fire district vehicle for recreation and smoking marijuana at a party in Providence. He was suspended in November 2015 and his contract was not renewed in February.

Vogel said she grappled with the contradiction of Labbadia's 19 years of good service, with the crime he committed. She said that in his pre-sentencing report and in comments outside the courthouse in January where he said he was "a pawn in a political chess game," Labbadia never expressed remorse, instead referring to his crime as a "mistake," something he wanted to get over with.

"That troubles me," she said.

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi said the town felt the sentence struck the right balance between sending a message about pension abuse but still letting the town to be made whole for Labbadia's fraud, committed while in a position of public trust.

He said he had been particularly bothered by Labbadia's "pawn" remark.

"Don't blame it on anyone else but yourself," Lombardi said.

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(c)2018 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) Visit The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) at www.projo.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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