Stephen Zaczynski, 49, is a lieutenant with the Connecticut Department of Correction. He claimed an on-the-job injury in September of 2008 and collected over $12,000 in benefits. While on disability, he continued to run a company he co-owned, New England Pellet. People in need of pellets pre-paid for the product, which, unfortunately for them, was never delivered. The company closed soon after Zaczynski went out on comp and filed for bankruptcy protection in January. To complete the trifecta, it appears that Zaczynski did not carry workers comp protection for his employees.
Let’s see if we’ve got this one straight: Zaczynski collects comp for an injury that did not disable him, freeing him up to run a business that did not deliver the product that his customers paid for – a product at least theoretically handled by employees who were not covered by workers comp insurance. (Perhaps they were “independent contractors”?)
Zaczynski has a court date on October 20, where he faces charges of first-degree larceny, workers comp fraud and failure to maintain workers comp insurance.
His attorney, Jim Oliver, denies all the charges: “I do not believe that a crime has been committed by Stephen. We intend to vigorously defend all claims.”
Oliver may have a case. In not delivering the pellets, Zaczynski perhaps was not performing work that exceeded the medical restrictions that kept him out of work. (We have no way of knowing whether the DOC tried to bring him back to work on light duty – as a lieutenant, this would surely have been an option.) While not delivering the product reduced the workplace hazards for his employees – less material handling, for sure – Zaczynski would still be required to provide workers comp protection, assuming these folks were, in fact, employees of the company. There’s usually not a lot of wiggle room on that issue.
Finally, failure to deliver the pellets certainly appears to be a form of larceny, but theft on a much bigger scale worked out pretty well for the giant banks, mortgage companies and insurers, so perhaps it can work for Stephen, too. In the final analysis, his problem may be one of scale: he just didn’t think big enough. If you’re not going to deliver the goods, you want to screw people out of more than a few pellets for a stove. Next time, Stephen, think big, really big. It’s the American way.
Tags: Connecticut, prisons, uninsured
