State officials have decided to cut off a $28,692-a-year disability retirement benefit originally granted in 2000 to a 39-year-old former correction officer -- who, in recent years, has participated in bicycle racing and martial arts competitions, and has served as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician.
In a decision released Monday, the state Medical Examining Board for Disability Retirement decided "to deny the continuation of service-connected disability benefits" for Gina Layman of Middlefield.
The case was the subject of a Sunday Government Watch column in The Courant, which can be read by clicking here. If Layman wants to appeal the decision, she needs to submit "medical documentation to support your appeal," according to a letter mailed to her Friday by the disability retirement unit of state Comptroller Nancy Wyman's office.
Reached for comment Monday, Layman said that she does plan to appeal. She also said she does not receive as much as the state said in writing that it pays her -- $2,391 per month, or $28,692 a year. "The decision is wrong," she said . "I'm appealing it. I have the union involved. I have attorneys involved. Other than that, leave me alone."
The comptroller's office will seek to recover all or part of the benefits Layman has received since April 2004, the time at which the medical examining board has now determined that she was "no longer permanently disabled," said Steve Jensen, a spokesman for Wyman.