Judge Exonerates Former Waterbury Fire Captain Farrell in Workers' Comp Case

All charges have been dropped against an Avon resident previously accused of workers' compensation fraud while on injury leave from his post as Waterbury fire captain last year.

A Waterbury Community Court judge dismissed Michael Farrell's remaining fourth-degree larceny charge in April. The initial charges of first-degree larceny and workman's compensation fraud were previously dropped and his case was moved from Waterbury Superior Court to the community court.
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Farrell said that he was only on injury leave once before in about 24 years of working for the Waterbury Fire Department and that he was not familiar with the conditions of it.

“I think it became very apparent throughout the process that there was never any intent on Mr. Farrell’s part to steal or defraud the city of Waterbury," Farrell's attorney Walt Hampton, of Canton, said. "Intent is a critical component of the crime of larceny.”

The City of Waterbury terminated him in the fall of 2012 following an administrative investigation and the September arrest, but the Waterbury Fire Department reinstated him after the charges were dropped so that he could retire from the position.

The situation began when Farrell said he injured his back wrestling a burning mattress out of the window at a Waterbury call in March 2012. The City of Waterbury placed the then fire captain on worker's compensation leave during his recovery. He went to physical therapy and his doctor told him not to do anything that required him to lift more than 10 pounds before or after a scheduled summer back surgery. 

Farrell said he taught four classes for the Connecticut Fire Academy and another at Wolcott Fire School as a part-time instructor before his back surgery,  "not thinking twice that I was doing something wrong."

“I knew almost nothing about workers’ comp," he said.

The classes did not involve physical labor and that he kept his instructors informed of his limitations, he said. 

While the initial charges brought against him in Waterbury claimed that he earned $19,558 in workers' compensation for injury leave in Waterbury while teaching and responding to volunteer calls in Avon, Farrell's attorney calculated that he actually received about $1,089 in workers' comp money while teaching the fire academy classes. As part of his case dismissal agreement, he paid back that amount and did four days of community service, Farrell and Hampton confirmed.

Farrell, a former volunteer firefighter in Avon, said that he also informed the Avon Volunteer Fire Department when he was on leave from his Waterbury fire captain job and that he could not do physical labor. He was placed on medical leave in Avon, as well. 

After receiving an anonymous letter with complaints against Farrell alleging violations of his workers' compensation arrangement, the City of Waterbury began an administrative investigation around the same time as the Waterbury Police Department's criminal investigation. The letter stated that Farrell had responded to volunteer calls in Avon while on paid injury leave in Waterbury. 

Farrell said that he checked out two Avon incidents near his neighborhood in June 2012 as a civilian, not as a representative of the fire department. Neither time involved physical exertion, he said.

“I have every right in a civilian capacity to go and do what I please," Farrell said. 

Farrell has since applied for various firefighting jobs and has been offered a career firefighting opportunity in a Southern Coastal Maine town. 

“I want to stay involved in the emergency services realm because it’s been my whole life," Farrell said.