Feds Probe Illinois Public Agencies’ Workers’ Comp Payouts

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Federal prosecutors are investigating possible workers’ compensation abuses at Illinois government agencies after disclosures of millions of dollars in payouts and questionable practices by arbitrators. U.S. attorneys in the central and southern districts have demanded injury-claim data and five years’ of e-mail and personnel records for Workers’ Compensation Commission arbitrators and other state employees.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported in December on nearly $10 million in awards for work-related injuries paid out to more than half the staff at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, prompting a state fraud investigation. The newspaper also raised questions about the actions of Workers’ Compensation Commission arbitrators, several of whom have received their own settlements.

Prosecutors demanded e-mails and personnel records from commission arbitrators Jennifer Teague and John Dibble. The state put Teague and Dibble, who make $115,840 a year, on paid administrative leave Feb. 15, the day after four subpoenas were issued by U.S. Attorney James Lewis of the central district.

Teague was suspended following a News-Democrat report that she tried to conduct a high-profile workers’ comp hearing “on the sly with no press,” according to an e-mail, and offered to speed up another hearing in return for a quicker payment in her own injury case. The newspaper reported that Dibble, who approved 125 of the Menard prison cases, also received a workers’ comp payment of $48,790 for a November 2009 fall that did not show up in commission records.

Dibble declined comment. Teague did not respond to a message left on her personal phone.

The Belleville newspaper reported that of nearly $10 million paid out to 389 employees at Menard, which opened in 1878, $5.9 million was paid to workers, usually prison guards, who claimed injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome from working manual locking systems.

Subsequent articles revealed the Dibble payment for carpal tunnel suffered in a fall at a state office and Teague’s alleged attempt, outlined in e-mails obtained by the newspaper, to keep a workers’ comp hearing for Illinois State Police trooper Matt Mitchell secret despite state law requiring it be open to the public.