Using 'Loophole' While on Leave
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Officer Rex T. Plant told his supervisors that after nine years of investigating crime scenes, he was too burned out to continue. For four years, he did not go to work but collected his salary, reaching nearly $60,000 annually, tax-free.
Plant's sick leave began in April 2000, after he said that he was "extremely irritated and frustrated" at work, according to records. He said he "tried to have as little contact . . . as possible" with his co-workers, "because I don't feel like being bothered with them." Later, in sessions with counselors, Plant said he would become physically ill just being in the District.
Mental health workers said he showed symptoms of traumatic stress, according to records provided by Plant. And the D.C. police department approved his leave, saying his illness was caused by work.
But internal investigators eventually discovered that Plant, who was too ill to go to work for the District, was traveling around the country for a consulting firm, according to police records. He was teaching officers how to investigate crime scenes, using grisly photos and other materials from cases he had handled in the city.
Plant told investigators that he taught the classes for free, with his travel and expenses reimbursed in cash through the consulting company. Plant said he had found "a loophole and used it" by putting in for annual leave when he traveled, then reverting to sick leave when he returned. But the department rejected his explanations, and he was fired in April 2005.
Plant, 41, insists that he deserved the full salary and his sick leave and can't understand why he was fired. Until the internal affairs investigation, he appeared headed to receive a lifetime disability payment from D.C. taxpayers, which he estimated would have brought him $30,000 a year.
Now he is trying to earn a living by lecturing but said he was worried that publicity about his termination might threaten that. "The department really interfered with my future income," he said.
-- Mary Pat Flaherty
