Long Beach Officers Involved in Sting Retire With Disability Pay

Two Long Beach police officers who were caught in the widely publicized sting involving civil rights activist Don Jackson have received stress-related disability retirements that will pay them 50% of their salaries for life, city officials said Tuesday.

Officers Mark Dickey, 29, and Mark Ramsey, 28, are suffering from psychological problems stemming from their arrest of Jackson on Jan. 14, 1989, according to city officials.

Doctors representing the officers and physicians with the city Health Department agreed that Dickey and Ramsey can no longer do their jobs.

Others, however, were shocked to hear of the retirement pay.

“It’s outrageous,” Jackson exclaimed when told of the retirements. “These guys were stressed out because they were engaged in misconduct and they got caught.”

In January, 1989, Jackson set out to show that racism existed in the Long Beach Police Department.

While an NBC camera crew tagged along, Jackson drove through Long Beach and eventually was stopped by Dickey and Ramsey for an alleged traffic violation. In the videotaped encounter, Dickey appeared to push Jackson’s head through a glass window, shattering it.

Dickey was charged with misdemeanor assault. He and Ramsey were also charged with misdemeanor violations for allegedly lying about the incident in a police report. A trial is set for Jan. 17.

Two months after the Jackson incident, Dickey went out on disability. Ramsey followed in April.

In separate workers compensation claims, both cited anxiety and gastrointestinal problems among their illnesses. The claims said the illnesses were stress induced and began after January, 1989. Those claims are pending.

Doctors from the city’s Health Department said that the officers’ “primary disabling condition is psychological,” according to a report the city filed with the Public Employees Retirement System, which will pay the officers their lifetime disability. Officials declined to elaborate on the officers’ medical problems, citing confidentiality.

The officers are free to work other jobs and still receive their disability pay. At the time he left the department, Dickey earned $756.92 a week and Ramsey was earning $663.24 a week. Dickey joined the department in October, 1984, and Ramsey joined in April, 1987.

“Disability retirements for police officers and firefighters are not unusual. They happen ever year,” said William Storey, the city’s personnel director. Since 1979, Long Beach has averaged between 10 and 12 disability retirements for officers annually, Storey said. Officials could not say how many of those were stress related.

In this case, all the doctors who examined the officers concurred that they could not do their jobs, according to Barbara de Jong, the deputy city attorney in charge of worker’s compensation claims.

The city did not dispute the officers’ claims because the city’s Health Department doctors agreed with the officers’ doctors, officials explained.

“We make valid medical recommendations,” Storey said. “That affects what we put in the Public Employees Retirement System. If we were to let everybody go off on medical disability, we’d be paying a heck of a lot of money. Obviously, we don’t want to do that.”

Ed George Jr., the attorney representing the officers in their upcoming trial, said, “Emotionally, they’re still hurting over this whole thing, but they’re doing the best they can. This has been a devastating experience.”