WESTHAVEN — Former police spokesman David Tamaro is suing the city for access to a disability pension, claiming his application has been ignored since retirement.
Tamaro, who resigned amid an investigation into the use of overtime by domestic affairs and state police, offered in his lawsuit by sending a resignation memo to then-chief John Karajanis via email on Aug. 17, 2018. According to the records, he retired. That same day, Tamaro began the process of collecting medical documents to qualify for a disability pension, so he emailed the police commissioner to request regular pension benefits.
According to his lawsuit, which was filed in September 2022, Tamaro’s application did not go up to the pension board’s agenda, even after a follow-up request written by his attorney on August 10, 2022.
West Haven Corporation legal counsel Lee Tiernan declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
Branford’s ophthalmologist wrote in the letter that he had been treating Tamaro since 2002 and had suffered “a work-related injury that reduced the vision in his left eye to one tenth of normal.” An examination by another health care provider found “permanent visual impairment” in his left eye.
Tamaro’s disability pension benefit lawsuit is his second lawsuit pending against the city. The August 2020 lawsuit against the city and police chief alleges negligence on behalf of the city and Chief Joseph Perno for Tamaro’s use of overtime and subsequent actions leading up to his arrest on 87 counts of counterfeiting. there is Tamaro’s criminal charges were dropped and he was granted early rehabilitation.
On December 5, 2022, Patricia Cofrancesco, attorney for Tammaro, filed a 171-page response to the City and Perno attorneys’ motion for judgment without trial. The investigation into Tamaro’s use of overtime was part of an attempt to remove Karajanis from the role of police chief.
In an affidavit dated November 21, 2022, Tamaro said that Cofrancesco had attempted to obtain, through the Freedom of Information Act, vacation slips related to his case dating back to 2013, but city officials had asked the state’s Freedom of Information Commissioner. He said he didn’t have those slips with the meeting. Owned by the State Attorney’s Office. However, Tammaro said in an affidavit that Cofrancesco was told the state attorney’s office did not have those slips, and after trying to request the documents for legal discovery, Tiernan told him that he needed them. I was told that the documents were being shredded for safe record keeping. The term has almost expired.
In a sworn statement in court, Tamaro also said after a meeting with Karajanis and then Deputy Commissioner Perno about the then captain: Robert Proto’s complaints about Tamaro, Perno pulled him aside and told him, “You’ll be fine,” and it was Karajanis who was targeted. At the hearing, Pernod said, “I would never have made such a statement,” and it was one of “many” lies told by Tamaro.
“I explained to Dave that he had a goal and that he should stop what he was doing and do everything in his power to justify filing the OT slip,” Pernod said. .
City attorneys said Tamaro alleged a “complex conspiracy involving a series of complaints filed against him” to try to get someone else out of their jobs.
