The FBI's probe into the FDNY's disability pension system comes after the Brooklyn DA dropped a similar 21-month investigation, sources told The Post yesterday.
The district attorney's rackets division had investigated the case of fireman Michael Romanelli, who charged his medical documents were altered and falsified, denying him a full tax-free disability pension.
In August 2002, the DA, although suspecting "wrongdoing" against Romanelli, concluded there wasn't enough evidence.
But the feds aren't convinced, and they're probing the case, sources said.
Romanelli severely injured his back in a fall while fighting a 1989 Brooklyn fire. He was found unfit for duty.
But he waged - and lost - a bitter 13-year battle with the pension board and the "Article 1-B" medical board, a panel of three doctors who determine disability.
The 1-B board claimed the fall didn't cause Romanelli's injury, and the firefighter got only a half-pay, taxable pension.
Then Brooklyn DA rackets division head Charles Guria stepped in, but the DA's office, headed by former FDNY Commissioner Charles Hynes, found there wasn't enough evidence.
Romanelli had claimed he was unfairly targeted by former 1-B board secretary Mary O'Sullivan because of an old family feud. O'Sullivan, who is now a lawyer for New York City, denied any wrongdoing.
Romanelli claimed O'Sullivan and her boss, then-FDNY Deputy Commissioner Marlene Gold (who is now director of the city's Office of Collective Bargaining), falsified documents and withheld medical records that would have backed up his claim.
Guria's probe found documents missing from Romanelli's file. He "believed . . . Mary O'Sullivan and Marlene Gold . . . were directly related and responsible for denial of [Romanelli's] accident disability," court documents show.
Gold could not be reached for comment.
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