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WPRO News and the Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Two Rhode Island retirees have hired lawyers to challenge the due process in a state panel’s decision to suspend their pensions.
The Providence Journal reports that the legal arguments claim the state Retirement Board violated due-process rights by suspending a pension for a former Cranston police officer without a hearing until it recouped alleged overpayments.
The board also is accused of disregarding a 1980 law revoking the state retirement board’s power to adjust accidental disability pensions based on other earnings.
State Treasurer Gina Raimondo last week cited $1 million she says was saved by reducing or suspending disability pensions of 16 former state and municipal workers who were overpaid. Raimondo is the Democratic candidate for governor in a race against Republican Allan Fung.
A spokeswoman for Raimondo would not comment.
