Man in Phone Office Attack Was Involved in Disability Pay Dispute

The man charged with shooting equipment inside a Pacific Bell office is involved in a bitter dispute with the company over its cancellation of permanent disability benefits approved when he retired in 1985.

Antonio (Tony) Apodaca retired with the understanding that he would receive permanent disability insurance payments from the company, said Ronald Dean, a Pacific Palisades attorney who represents Apodaca in his effort to regain the benefits.

After one doctor working for Pacific Bell found Apodaca eligible for permanent disability benefits, the company obtained a second opinion and canceled benefits, Dean said.

By taking a disability retirement in 1985, Dean said, Apodaca gave up his right to get his Pacific Bell job back. Apodaca had worked for the company 20 years as a plant engineer, described by Dean as a management job.

‘Lot of Rage’

“Personally, I have a lot of rage at Pac Bell,” Dean said. “They really did (Apodaca) an injustice.... They knew what they were doing to him.”

Attorneys for both sides refused to disclose the nature of Apodaca’s disability, but a letter by Dean to a Pacific Bell attorney indicates it was psychiatric disability.

The letter, which accuses Pacific Bell of “doctor shopping” was obtained by the Press-Enterprise newspaper.

Apodaca, 47, is accused of firing a barrage of gunshots into $10 million worth of switching equipment at the downtown Riverside office, disabling an estimated 15,000 phone lines. He allegedly entered the building at Orange and Fifth streets about 2:30 a.m. Monday and held three hostages at gunpoint. The hostages weren’t harmed and Apodaca surrendered to Riverside police shortly after 8 a.m.

Apodaca was charged Wednesday with three counts of false imprisonment, three counts of assault, one count of burglary and one count of destruction of telephone lines in excess of $100,000.

The Riverside man appeared before Municipal Court Judge Ronald Taylor to answer the charges, but proceedings were continued to April 29 at the request of defense attorney Virginia Blumenthal of Riverside.

Remains in Custody

Taylor set Apodaca’s bail at $250,000. He remained in custody Wednesday in the jail ward of Riverside General Hospital, where he has undergone psychiatric evaluation.

Pacific Bell attorney Keith Epstein, who handles employee disability matters, declined comment on Apodaca’s disability case. Company spokesman Linda Bonniksen also declined comment, saying it was a confidential personnel matter.

Apodaca has written several letters to the company, asking that the revocation of his benefits be reconsidered. In the letters, Apodaca said that since his disability benefits were revoked, he had earned $4,000 one year and $5,000 the next and that he could not live on that amount of money, Dean said.

Dean said Wednesday he hasn’t received an answer from Pacific Bell to his formal request that the decision revoking Apodaca’s disability benefits be reconsidered. He said he is prepared to file suit against the company to recover Apodaca’s benefits if the request is denied.

Unlike short-term disability payments, which are administered by the state and paid for by employee payroll deductions, long-term disability payments are largely a matter between employer and employee.