By George Pawlaczyk
Belleville News-Democrat
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Corrections officer Lance Fancher is back at work after taking a disability leave of nearly a year during which he collected his $66,000 salary for an injury an emergency room physician said should have kept him out of work for up to two weeks.
Instead, Fancher stayed out 352 days and collected more than $60,000 while off the job and returned two weeks before his full benefits would have expired.
Following an injury he said he incurred during an inmate fight he helped break up on Oct. 13, 2013, Fancher, 44, of Du Quoin, filed his fifth workers’ compensation claim since 2008. This led to a joint investigation of “possible misconduct” still underway by the Department of Corrections, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and Tristar, a private firm that processes the state’s workers’ compensation claims.
Fancher declined to comment about why he returned last month to full duty, first at the Big Muddy Correctional Center before transferring last week to the Vienna Correctional Center. When asked to describe his injury, Fancher said, “Please don’t call me again,” and hung up.
The disability claim Fancher filed in December of last year drew statewide headlines in April after the News-Democrat reported that Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer said two medical examinations of Fancher soon after the inmate fight showed he had no injuries, according to physicians’ reports. The official state investigations followed.
A medical report made on the day of the fight by Dr. Richard Griffin of Good Samaritan Hospital in Mount Vernon stated, “Prognosis: Good for full recovery in 10 to 14 days.” Fancher left the hospital with his right arm in a sling. Griffin wrote that Fancher could return immediately to work on “light duty.”
Another BND story in May reported that while he was out on “extended benefits,” which are supposed to be restricted to prison employees who cannot work because they were injured by inmates, Fancher participated in a competitive bass fishing tournament on Lake of Egypt. At the time of the tournament in April, Fancher said he was simply sitting in the speed boat to support a friend who was doing the actual fishing.
Online Workers’ Compensation Commission records show that since 2008 the state has paid Fancher $135,795 in medical bills, temporary disability pay and a settlement for an earlier disability claim. On his latest claim, he has received approximately $63,360 for 352 days out of work, or 96 percent of his annual pay of about $66,000. But these same records show only that Fancher’s claimed injury is to his “whole body,” and don’t specify a particular body part like most disability claim applications.
Tom Rich, a workers’ compensation lawyer in Fairview Heights who represents Fancher, could not be reached for comment. Rich represented more than 100 prison guards at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester when they filed workers’ compensation claims based on wrist injuries they said were caused by turning keys and operating locking mechanisms. The state paid more than $10 million for these claims, which led to workers’ compensation law reforms after the BND reported the claims filed by Rich and other lawyers. A hearing on Fancher’s latest claim is set for Jan. 6, 2015.
Asked to indicate whether Fancher’s claim might be for a mental disability like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that could affect the “whole body” and result from working in a potentially violent job like regulating inmates, Anjali Julka, spokeswoman for the workers’ compensation commission, said, “The IWCC cannot confirm whether or not workers’ compensation claims involve PTSD, as disclosure of such information is prohibited under both state and federal medical privacy laws.”
Tom Veale, president of Tristar Risk Management, a large firm licensed in all 50 states to process disability claims and works under contract in Illinois, said he could not make any comment about a specific worker’s claim.
Shaer, the IDOC spokesman, said Fancher’s full pay benefits would have run out after one year, or about two weeks after he came back to work in September, first on light duty and then in November on full duty. If he had stayed out longer than a year, his benefits would have been reduced to 66 percent of full pay, Shaer said. There is no time limit on collecting the reduced benefits.
Shaer said a physician’s report was filed every 30 days, per the agency’s regulations, stating that Fancher could not return to work. That ended on Sept 25 when the physician, who was not identified, gave Fancher the go ahead to return to work, first on light duty and then on full duty.
The actual investigative work that continues concerning Fancher’s disability claim is being conducted by Tristar.
“It is customary for Tristar to share its investigation file and final report with IDOC,” Shaer said. “We look forward to the conclusion of Tristar’s work on this matter.”