U.S. Files First Suit Under Disabilities Act in Illinois : Law: Justice Department fights for pension benefits for excluded police officers and firefighters. Case involves diabetic who was barred from retiree plan.

Opening a new frontier in law enforcement, the Justice Department Tuesday filed its first lawsuit to enforce job provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act. It asked a federal court to strike down sections of an Illinois law that deny pension benefits to disabled police officers and firefighters.

The suit, filed in Chicago, accused the state of Illinois and the Chicago suburb of Aurora of excluding otherwise qualified employees who are disabled from participating in a state-established retirement fund.

The case began with a complaint by Kevin Holmes, 34, who was hired eight years ago by the Aurora police force even though he was known to have diabetes. Later, he was barred from making contributions to or getting benefits from the police pension fund because he failed to pass a second physical examination required by the fund’s board of trustees.

Now if Holmes is injured or wounded--even while on duty--and forced to retire, he would be ineligible for pension benefits.

Acting Assistant Atty. Gen. James P. Turner, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said there will be more such suits now that the Administration and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno have made enforcement of the act a priority. Reno reportedly has authorized the assignment of 12 more employees to the task.

“This is the kickoff today of a new and expanding area of law enforcement,” said Turner, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “This Administration and this department have embarked on a serious effort to enforce the employment provisions of the ADA.”

The filing of the suit was hailed by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a major advocate of the ADA, which was passed by Congress in 1990 and signed into law by President George Bush.

“It’s a significant step forward,” said Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the conference. “The federal government is taking its enforcement responsibilities seriously, and employers should be warned not to discriminate against qualified workers with disabilities.”

In the Holmes case, the Justice Department argued that Aurora’s policy violated the employment provisions of the 1990 law that were designed to halt discrimination against disabled people.

“Such unfair treatment will not be tolerated,” said Turner. “It is unlawful for qualified individuals with a disability to be denied complete access to a benefit plan that is otherwise available to persons without a disability.”

At issue are provisions of Illinois law that empower the board of trustees of the Aurora police pension fund to exclude active police officers who are disabled from making pension contributions or receiving pension benefits.

The Justice Department lawsuit accused both the state of Illinois and the city of Aurora of failing to halt the discriminatory policies.

This conduct amounts to a “pattern or practice” of resistance to equal employment opportunities for qualified persons with disabilities as the new law requires, the Justice Department added.

It asked a federal judge to declare parts of Illinois’ police and firefighter pension law void and require the state and its localities to make retirement benefits available to all employees regardless of whether they have disabilities.

The lawsuit also requested a court order directing the state and the city of Aurora and its police pension board to compensate anyone who lost benefits because of the policy.

In Aurora on Tuesday, Mayor Jack Pierce sided with the Justice Department.

“He believes Officer Holmes should be entitled to a pension,” said Scott McClery, executive assistant to the mayor, at a news conference. He indicated that the board of trustees of the pension fund was responsible for excluding Holmes and another Aurora policeman, who has chronic back problems, from taking part in the retirement plan.

Holmes, a patrolman who first raised the issue in 1985 but failed to get results after filing a complaint with the federal office of revenue-sharing, filed a private lawsuit under the ADA earlier this year.

Now that the Justice Department has sided with him in the dispute over pension rights, his case probably will be consolidated with the government lawsuit.

Speaking to reporters at a Justice Department briefing, Turner said attempts to work out a voluntary settlement with the state of Illinois and the Aurora pension officials failed to produce an agreement.