By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Western New Yorkers rallied to support critically wounded Buffalo police officer Patricia Parete three years ago when she was shot in the face and paralyzed while responding to a call on the city's West Side.

Today, Parete faces the loss of personal and family health coverage, along with other fringe benefits, as the city pulled the plug on benefits paid out to injured officers effective Dec. 1.

Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson notified Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President Robert Meegan Jr. in a letter dated Nov. 23 that the benefits would cease in seven days. In the letter, Gipson cited vacation accrual, holiday pay and longevity pay among the fringe benefits that would no longer be paid.

"Since the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) does not require the city to grant such contractual benefits to individuals also receiving 207-c payments (disability payments), those contractual benefits will therefore cease," Gipson said in the letter.

Meegan and the PBA filed suit in state Supreme Court seeking a temporary injunction to force the city to continue paying the benefits.

He said Tuesday that state Supreme Court Justice Hon. Timothy Drury had issued a temporary restraining order barring the city from implementing the cuts pending a hearing that afternoon. The PBA has requested information from the city to explain the decision to cut benefits, he said, and has also asked for a sit-down grievance hearing. The city has not yet responded to those requests, he said Tuesday.

"They are taking things away from Patty Parete, for God's sake. Here's a girl in a bad situation, and it's not right at all," Meegan said. "This type of conduct by the city can't continue. It's outrageous to do something like this to officers injured in the line of duty."

Meegan said the practice of paying benefits to officers injured on the job has been in place for decades and he has no idea where this radical departure is coming from. He worries that it will have a trickle-down effect that could compromise the safety of Buffalo residents and visitors to the city.

"This will absolutely have a detrimental effect," he said. "Look, that's got to be in the back of your mind, the fact that if you do get injured apprehending a burglar or a rapist, you have to really be concerned for your safety, because if you are injured, the city isn't going to provide for you and your family."

Meegan and the PBA feel confident that the benefits will at some point be reinstated for Parete and other officers injured on the job.

"But where the problem lies is, how long does it take?" Meegan said. "How much damage is going to be done to the officers' financial well-being that are currently off-duty?

"To go out and do your job, and then have the municipality not protect you ... it is unbelievable."

The Buffalo Police Department slated a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to respond to the suit, but at a different time and location than originally scheduled. The BPD had not responded to subsequent requests for comment as of press time.