When it’s one of Sheriff Joe’s posses
Maricopa County posse member Phillip Grigg ran to help a Phoenix police officer and got shot. He almost died and spent 6 months in the hospital. Is he covered by County insurance? His request for workman’s compensation was denied.
Posse members are covered during search and rescue operations and in certain other situations, but apparently not in general.
Grigg is appealing the decision. Read more from KPHO in Phoenix.
Doc,
A quick correction: Grigg went to help a Phoenix police officer and both of them were shot with the officer’s gun. Here are the details with information on the suspects:
http://www.kpho.com/story/24462765/4th-suspect-in-officer-shooting-robbery-returned-to-phoenix
The officer survived his wounds. It’s a miracle Grigg didn’t die from his.
As far as the denial of Grigg’s worker’s comp claim it’s quite clear why it happened: That is exactly what the Arizona legislature intended!
Arizona Revised Statues Title 23 deals with the Industrial Commission which oversees workers compensation. Section 23-901 deals with definitions:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/search/oop/qfullhit.asp?CiWebHitsFile=/ars/23/00901.htm&CiRestriction=posse
It’s a ponderous read but you will notice the legislature is quite meticulous in defining who is covered and even under what circumstances. It includes paid and unpaid folks like reserve police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
Section 23-901(g) deals with sheriff’s reserve deputies and, briefly, posse members:
(g) Regular members of a volunteer sheriff’s reserve, which may be established by resolution of the county board of supervisors, to assist the sheriff in the performance of the sheriff’s official duties. A roster of the current members shall monthly be certified to the clerk of the board of supervisors by the sheriff and shall not exceed the maximum number authorized by the board. Certified members of an authorized volunteer sheriff’s reserve shall be deemed to be employees of the county for the purpose of coverage under the Arizona workers’ compensation laws and occupational disease disability laws and shall be entitled to receive the benefits of these laws for any compensable injuries or disabling conditions that arise out of and occur in the course of the performance of duties authorized and directed by the sheriff. Compensation benefits and premium payments shall be based upon the salary received by a regular full-time deputy sheriff of the county involved for the first month of regular patrol duty as an officer for each certified member of a volunteer sheriff’s reserve. This subdivision shall not be construed to provide compensation coverage for any member of a sheriff’s posse who is not a certified member of an authorized volunteer sheriff’s reserve except as a participant in a search and rescue mission or a search and rescue training mission.
Grigg’s problem is the last sentence. If he had been a reserve deputy he probably would have been covered even though he acted off duty.
The problem comes now when the light goes on for the 3,000 plus other posse members who are not reserve deputies (not allowed by the MCSO, by the way) or members of the search and rescue units.
Recall that recently the Sun City and other community posses parked their patrol cars when no one could figure out if they have insurance while driving their unofficial marked police units. The sheriff has long brushed off concerns about coverage for posses by saying they are covered by the county on a case by case basis and blah, blah, blah.
If car insurance was a problem this is going to be worse by several magnitudes.
There is no quick, simple solution to this one. Arpaio can’t wave his magic wand this time.
What will be interesting is to see how the public and other politicians react. I predict a lot of finger pointing and raised voices.
It looks like posse members are being led down the primrose path. It also looks like Grigg’s service may do more good for his fellow posse members than he realizes.
I mentioned this back in early January immediately after the shooting. Mr. Grigg was a county posse member who assisted a City of Phoenix officer. (different department). He did this through his own choice, and at no command of the posse or the MCSO. I stated at that time that I didn’t think he would get compensated, nor was I under the impression that he should (call me a hardass, I don’t think people in a posse should take any actions on their own and get county funding to help them recuperate when it all goes wrong!) CarlOrcas gave me hell at the time for my opinion. Nothing that has happened changes that. Posse members work at the direction of MCSO. I don’t think they should be vigilantes and get county compensation for trying to be heroes.
I don’t think vigilante (or heroes, for that matter) means what you think it does.
Let us hope.
i was pretty much expecting this outcome when I heard about this earlier in the year. Having dealt with Workman’s Comp from both sides, and particularly from having seen how gov’t entities treat it when it applies to them I didn’t really expect him to get any traction with MCSO. Posse people simply aren’t county employees or whatever the term is for this that I can’t remember at the moment, and so are quite frankly SOL. In truth, I suspect they would be SOL under almost all situations regardless of what the Shurf claimed. I think he’d probably have better luck suing the city or whatever jurisdiction was responsible than expecting WC. I also suspect he might have a case against the country for reliance on what the Shurf had told them, although that might be problematic, but considering the Shurf’s past history maybe not.
I am going to be meeting with a prominent Phoenix attorney next week and will ask him for his take on this.
From the news story I infer that Maricopa County is self-insured for workers’ compensation. As a general rule, volunteers for any business are not covered by workers’ comp, in part because one of the factors in calculating premiums is the employer’s total payroll. Those calculations would be skewered if the employer has a significant number of volunteers working in dangerous conditions and they were covered by WC.
This is one of the reasons that I shake myself in disbelief when I hear gun nuts calling for people to arm themselves when they go to restaurants, etc., just in case a bad guy with a gun shows up. When the bad guy then shoots the good guy, who is going to pay for the good guy’s injuries?
Leave the policing to the police.
The employer (MCSO as self-insured through county or via the state fund) doesn’t get to make the decision. As I recall the self-insured operations like Maricopa County have to turn the decisions over to a trustee that operates according to state law and rules. Self-insuring just saves them a lot of money.
In this case I think it’s pretty simple: The law clearly excludes most posse members. The legislature can fix that but not quickly.
Notice that reserve deputies are clearly covered.
I think the posses and their corporate makeup kind of blur things a bit. Reserve deputies are treated as employees.
Yes, I think you’re on to something there: If you can’t trust Sheriff Joe, who can you trust?
Yes, Maricopa County is self-insured but Arizona clearly provides for volunteers and even defines how benefits will be calculated. Take a look at the highlighted section 23-901 6 (g) in my message above.
Peruse the rest of the section http://www.azleg.state.az.us/search/oop/qfullhit.asp?CiWebHitsFile=/ars/23/00901.htm&CiRestriction=posse and you’ll see they’ve done it for volunteer fire departments, state national guard, volunteer EMT’s and ambulance drivers.
Now the rush will be on to figure out how to fix this. It won’t be as easy as the car insurance, gas card, license place nonsense of a couple months ago (though they are both symptoms of the same problem) because the legislature is going to have to get involved.
The upcoming election – just four months away – may be just the motivation the lawmakers need to get this fixed.
Gosh, you mean Arpaio’s stated two-word fiscal policy doesn’t make it all better?
If I recall correctly, the discussion at the time was about one of the Sheriff’s benevolent funds, and whether or not they could extend benefit to Griggs. The benevolent funds are not workman’s comp, nor are they part of the County legal structure. They are a standalone trust system specifically set up to fill the holes left by the necessarily narrow reach of the counties responsibilities. I very much doubt that they have the resources Griggs now faces – I bet you dollars to donuts he didn’t have ‘Obamacare’ – but they can be benevolent with their resources exactly as they see fit to anyone they think fits their charter.
The fact that he was a member of a Posse doesn’t give him any more right to County sponsored workman’s compensation than any other citizen. A Posse member is not a county employee except in specific county endorsed operations like the Search and Rescue Posse on official duty.
‘Helping’ a City Policeman is not an official Posse function no matter how laudable the action is and no matter how you look at it. It just isn’t.
He was an untrained civilian bystander. Period. Perhaps his actions saved the Cop’s life, perhaps his actions interfered with and caused more problems than he solved. I’m not in a position to know. Whatever the case, it doesn’t have anything to do with the county.
Carl, I didn’t know, but rather suspected that the county would be self funded, as most of them are in my experience, and while I agree with you about the assorted rules etc., they will still go out of their way to avoid coverage, even in a case where it should have been automatic if they can at all get away with it, as I have watched my local variants do it repeatedly. Of course, if they deny they are responsible for coverage and get away with it, it then leaves them open to civil suits, and the ones around here have lost big on several of those when they should have just have done what was right and paid the workman’s comp and been done with it.
The other factor in this is politics: The key players in the county and state (Governor appoints the members of the Industrial Commission) are all elected and the public’s response to this story as it unfolds in the next week will play as big a role, if not bigger, as any of the current laws and rules.
It certainly doesn’t mean going above the direction of the MCSO and then expecting the county to pay for his injuries.
I agree.
Out of curiosity…..if you were in a position to help another person in a life threatening situation what would you do?
He is among the few who have stepped in to help a fellow human being survive a life threatening situation. He is a Good Samaritan. He’s old school.
Questioning his motives for making a split second decision to help another person is…..well….bothersome is as polite as I can be at the moment.
I would presume that all of those exceptions are covered by workers’ comp which is either self-insured or quasi self-insured. I doubt that for-profit insurance companies would have any interest in writing WC insurance for entities which have unpaid volunteers who are covered by WC.
“Questioning his motives for making a split second decision to help another person is…..well….bothersome is as polite as I can be at the moment.”
What is more bothersome to me are the stories about numbers of people who stand by watching people suffer at the hands of others. What is their motivation for not intervening as a group? A tough call for many.
I get the feeling bgansel9’s position is being somewhat mischaracterized in this thread.
If I understand her correctly, she maintains that, regardless of whether or not he should have come to the officer’s aid (a laudable act, the wisdom of which is debateable,) he should not be covered by Worker’s Comp for the injuries he sustained.
And if that’s her position, I have to agree.
He was a private citizen, acting on his own authority, even if he incorrectly believed otherwise, before or after.
As you can see the law lays out the rates for computing benefits for reserve deputies but, like you, I doubt a private carrier would want to get into that market segment.
I would suspect that the WC rates for a private insure for something like the Sheriff’s or a police Dept would be staggering, thus the self insure route. I also suspect that Carl is right in that how this plays out politically will be the determining factor in its resolution.
I would do what I am able. Getting shot would not be on the list though. Granted, I have never owned or shot a gun, so I am not the person to respond to such a matter. BUT, while this man was brave enough to respond to that situation, he was not covered under MCSO to do so and clearly he was taking his life into his own hands. He cannot expect to get funding for his recovery. It was the chance he took.
That is correct.
I know some gun lovers on Facebook who are planning to boycott Target because the company doesn’t want people bringing guns into its stores. They are fond of saying “The only way to stop a bad buy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”
To which I have repeatedly asked, “How do you know if the guy with a gun is a bad guy or a good guy?” And “If you open fire on a bad guy with a gun and he shoots you, who is going to be responsible for your medical bills? Who is going to take care of your family if the bad guy kills you?”
I have yet to receive responsive answers to those questions.
Paging Dr. Freud.
Did you ever wonder why he took the chance?
Posse members have long been told that the sheriff’s office would take care of them…..just like they do regular and reserve deputies…..and that they would have police powers if they were aiding a certified officer.
There may be some developments soon that will illuminate this whole matter and maybe explain why Grigg thought he and his family would be protected if he jumped into help the Phoenix officer.
I would like nothing more than for someone to produce some concrete evidence of this; it would mean the foolhardy gentleman who intervened would get the assistance he and his family require, and it would be the end of Shurf Joke and countless numbers of his minions. But I’ll be surprised if they put this in writing, or were recorded saying so,
Regardless, if someone told me this, yet provided no training or certification of any kind, I’d hope I weren’t so vainglorious as to believe them. But I think vainglory is a necessary attribute for most of these posse members, who see themselves as rough-and-tough heroes in any event.
Actually it’s all over the posse websites. http://www.mcsoposse.org/
And it’s all over the map.
That is the other side of the picture and as Brian Reilly told us once you look into the posse operations it isn’t a pretty picture.
The thousands of posse members who work hard and provide a valuable service deserve some straight answers from Sheriff Joe and Maricopa County.
I am sure that if this posse member was doing something for MCSO, that would more often than not be true. That guarantee doesn’t carry over when he assists a Phoenix PD officer.
Couple things: The point is that it isn’t true. You cannot magically turn a posse member into a peace officer.
There is/was a provision that I’ve talked about before that allowed a peace officer to summon assistance in an emergency but that doesn’t work here either.
The bottom line is that posse members have no police powers….period. Some of them – search and rescue units – do have worker’s comp coverage but all the others don’t.
Reserve officers, on the other hand, are peace officers and have full coverage.
The problem here is not that he was helping a Phoenix officer but that ARS 23-901 specifically excludes him from workers comp coverage under any circumstances. If he was a level 1 reserve deputy his claim would have probably been approved.
Germany has since 1884 (yes, three years after Billy the Kid was killed) a compulsive insurance for workplace accidents. Any person who assists in an accident – the famous good Samaritan or our Mr. Grigg – is automatically insured.
It goes even farther.
If you help your neighbor to clean his roof gutters, fall from the ladder and get injured – the “gesetzliche Unfallversicherung” pays everything necessary for your medical rehabilitation and pay your lost income.
And If you get killed – they will pay for your childrens education.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGesetzliche_Unfallversicherung_in_Deutschland&edit-text=
Interesting.
And universal health care dates from shortly after that, courtesy of the Kaiser, right?
Don’t get me started on our health care system……maybe later after I get some sleep.
BREAKING! (Birther heart-breaking!)
A desperate recurring theme of several longtime posters at BR, highlights the quandary the CCP is in when it comes to getting their next cry of “WOLF!” even noticed, let alone reported. So how DO you fill the room with reporters for YET ANOTHER Mike Zoo Low lunatic presentation?
The setting is the gymnasium of a closed Phoenix religious middle school, filled with hundreds of chairs seating many members of the press, bristling with TV cameras and microphones, all focusing on a podium rearing up from the middle of a stage set into the long dimension of the room. From a furtive figure cloaked in a black sheet with eye-holes and wearing a five-pointed tear-soaked cardboard sheriff’s deputy badge, comes the sedating voice of Mike Zoo Low over the facility’s ancient PA system’s A.C.hum:
”Good morning and thanks for attending, members of the press. I’m not going to lie to you. Most of you are here today because we announced that we would be distributing photographs of former Presidential candidate, Nit Ronmee biting the ears off of his pet Beagle. We apologize for that deception, since we are really here to reveal Universe-shattering information about Presidential high crimes and not misdemeanors, which all of you conspired to hide from We the People.
Wait! Wait! Don’t Leave! You all are under arrest for treason and misprision of treason, but I am authorized to extend to each of you that either stays for our entire presser or implicates another traitor in writing, an offer to reduce your death penalty to life imprisonment! Wait! Come back! Don’t leave! Stay!
We are unsealing our People’s Indictment! Don’t leave! LISTEN! The Cold Case Pussee is more than just some whacko politically motivated presidential lynching party! Some time ago, utilizing his warehouse full of cardboard deputy-like badges, Share If Our Pie Hole responded to the need for increased policing in his jurisdiction, by creating a whole bunch of real Pussees, and we are among them.
I swear to you, our only goal was to clear the name of the worst KNOWN God-awful, treasonous, socialistic, usurpaceous, teleprompter-dependent, criminal butcher AND SUSPECTED non-Caucasian bastard in the history of the world!
Sadly, we failed in that sincere effort, and now feel obligated to reluctantly and officially identify the forgers of Obama’s LFBC and Selective Service Card, all of whom must receive multiple-life prison sentences or WORSE! They are: Barack Hussein Doe, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Doe, Natasha Doe, and Malia Ann Doe. Wait! Come back! Don’t leave!
During the hangings we’ll have cookies for the kids, Bat Poone will rekindle the fires of Colonial ethnic insensitivity by crooning a new Obama insulting tune, “Ain’t that a Shine?”
(Shouts of “racists” and “lunatics” are heard as all legitimate representatives of the press gather up their equipment and leave in disgust.) That leaves only Share Odd Run Dough, who daily pretends to be several working reporters on her hate sheet, the Pest and TeeHeeMail. Remembering that her thousands of so-called “articles” have never created ANY, let alone major, media buzz, she stares glumly down at the tip of her fully segmented thorax where she had hoped beyond hope, she would one day develop a stinger. “Nice job!” She shouts at the still becloaked Zoo Low)
Share If Our Pie Hole (inching through the emptied gymnasium toward Zoo Low still up on the stage, cocking his 44 Cal revolver behind his back, where Zoo Low can’t see it) : “Stay right there a minute, Mike – don’t move a muscle! In fact, close your eyes a second and relax!”
Mike Zoo Low (pulling off the black hood): “ How’d I do, Joe?”
(A sheet of orange flame accompanied by a heavy caliber report engulf the area immediately around Zoo Low as almost his entire head is blown away)
Lead Investigator Mike Zoo Low: “What was that?”
It would appear that two days after the Cold Case Posse was declared delinquent and a corporation not in good standing on June 18, 2014, the Cold Case Posse has filed papers for the appointment of a new Statutory Agent. Hopefully this filing won’t contain the same bogus addresses for the corporation’s Domestic Address as well as the Statutory Agent. Amazing!
“Documents Waiting To Be Examined
Date Received Description Expedited
06/16/2014 CHANGE(S) No
06/20/2014 AGENT APPOINTMENT No
06/16/2014 AGENT APPOINTMENT No”
When is law enforcement not law enforcement? When he loses his job and runs for the border.
You all remember the crazy birther sheriff — no, not Arpaio — I mean the really crazy one, Mark Kessler from Pennsylvania. As Crooks and Liars reports,
“Wingnut Former Police Chief Wants To ‘Rain Hot Lead’ On Cartels At Arizona Border.
Mark Kessler is heading to the Arizona border and calling on his pals to join him in order to ‘rain hot lead’ on alleged drug cartels.”
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/07/militia-leading-disgraced-police-chief
Apparently they didn’t pay the fee for expedited handling (they did for the June 16 main filing). We’ll just have to wait for the results.
It looks like he’s heading for a place on Birthers Behaving Badly.