The state of Connecticut filed suit Oct. 6 to make a jailed former deputy warden pay the costs of his imprisonment, two weeks after Raising Hale reported he didn’t qualify for the state’s pension revocation statute.
Neal Kearney pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault in June for getting sexual favors from a male inmate. He is serving a 30-month sentence in Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville.
Although the court imposed a $151 fine on Kearney, he received a $65,040 pension last year.
The lawsuit, requested by the Department of Correction and filed by the Attorney General’s office, seeks $133 per day to cover the costs of jailing Kearney. According to court documents, that amounts to $9,975 through Oct. 6 plus $121,562 if Kearney serves his whole sentence.
If Kearney serves his entire sentence and the court orders him to pay the state’s costs, he will still clear at least $31,000 while in jail.
His minimum release date is Oct. 12, 2012. If he is released then, the state can collect as much as $60,781 plus $9,975.
The Hartford Courant’s Jon Lender first reported the state’s lawsuit on Oct. 21.
Attorney General George Jepsen’s office told Raising Hale in September the pension revocation law does not apply to Kearney.
Instead, the state is suing Kearney using a law that applies to anyone in jail, whether they have a state pension or another source of income or assets.
“We have not initiated revocation proceedings against Neal Kearney as it is not a proper matter for the pension revocation statute,” Susan Kinsman, a spokesman for Jepsen, told Raising Hale in September.
In 2008, the General Assembly passed a law giving the Attorney General the ability to revoke pensions for state employees who commit felonies on the job. The resignation and federal conviction of former Gov. John G. Rowland prompted the legislation.
However, the law specifies only four types of crime that can result in loss of pension: embezzlement of public funds, theft, bribery and any other felony committed “with the intent to defraud” and related to public employment.
State officials were not specific in describing what had prompted their suit against Kearney.
Kinsman said the Department of Correction asked the AG’s office to file the suite.
“The Department of Correction, in concert with the Department of Administrative Services and the Attorney General regularly identifies individuals who have the ability to pay, and will legally go after them for the cost of incarceration,” said Brian Garnett, spokesman for the Department of Correction.
Garnett said the state recovered $3 million last year.
The charges against Kearney stem from the allegations of a former inmate who had a sexual relationship with Kearney while in prison.
“I felt like I could not tell him no because he had such power over me and he would keep me in prison if I did not do it,” the victim said in court documents.
The Department of Correction placed Kearney on paid administrative leave Sept. 1, 2009 and Kearney retired Nov. 1, 2009, according to a spokesman.
A judge sentenced Kearney in July.