Ex-police sergeant busted in disability scheme tries again for pension

A former police sergeant who lost his job after he concocted a plan to have his wife shoot him in the leg for a disability pension took another shot at the money this week, CBS Philadelphia reports.

Jeffrey Frett, a former sergeant with the Camden, N.J., police department, requested a disability pension to compensate for injuries he said he got while in an on-the-job accident in 2008. That was two years before the shooting scheme.

Frett's lawyer told the New Jersey Board of Trustees for Police and Firemen's Retirement System on Monday that Frett was entitled to the pension despite how he lost his job.

"After the accident, this is where Mr. Frett's life fell apart," the lawyer, John Feeley, said.

In 2010, Frett reported being shot at by a gunman in a dark colored van along I-676 in Camden, according to authorities.

It turned out to be a staged incident.

According to documents released last week to the New Jersey Board of Trustees for Police and Firemen's Retirement System, the shooter was Frett's wife.

Officials said the 16-year-veteran's wife was to shoot him in the leg in hopes he would get a disability pension. She missed his leg and was pulled over trying to get away.

Frett pleaded guilty to a disorderly persons offense for making a false call over his police radio, paid $158 fine and spent a year on probation. He lost his job and was barred from future public employment.

Feeley said the former officer did not get sufficient treatment for his injuries but board members challenged the legitimacy of his claims.

"If you really believed that you were disabled in 2008, you wouldn't have had to have your wife shoot you in 2010," trustee John Sierchio said.

The board voted unanimously to deny the accidental disability pension. Frett has 45 days to appeal.

"I'm just extremely disappointed and have to think what I'm going to do next," Frett said after the hearing.