Grand jury: Hurt police were cheated

Two Bristol Township police officers, severely injured by a drunken and uninsured driver, were cheated out of insurance benefits by their own township manager and three insurance employees, a Bucks County grand jury presentment alleges.

In an alleged scheme that the grand jury labeled "beyond reprehensible," the four were charged yesterday with forgery, tampering with public records, and other crimes.

Police Officers Michael Egan and Mark Buzby suffered debilitating leg injuries on Aug. 27, 2005.

The officers were investigating an accident on Route 13 when the drunken and uninsured driver struck them. Doctors had to amputate one of Egan's legs, and Buzby underwent at least 18 operations. Each can perform only light administrative work.

But the officers were denied when they sought uninsured motorist liability benefits from the township. They were told the township had turned down such coverage before the accident, and were shown rejection documents to prove it.

In fact, the grand jury said, the documents had been fabricated and backdated to deny the officers benefits.

Among those charged yesterday was former Township Manager Suzanne Newsome, 44, already serving a two-year state prison sentence for stealing more than $14,000 from the township. Also arrested were Robert Brown, 63, of Springfield, Montgomery County; Freda Batipps, 58, of Norristown; and Linda Magovern, 62, of Blue Bell. All worked for USI Mid-Atlantic, at the time Bristol's insurance broker.

"Knowing that police officers have become targets on the street, being gunned down and run down," such a scheme "is vile and reprehensible," said William Goldman Jr., an attorney for Buzby.

Michael McGovern, a lawyer for Brown, Batipps and Magovern, said the insurance issue was a civil matter. "I am fully confident that all of these individuals will be exonerated, because there is no criminal intent on any of their parts," he said.

Brown, Batipps and Magovern were released on $100,000 unsecured bail.

Several grand jury witnesses said they believed that Bristol's township council had orally rejected uninsured motorist coverage, but no one was able to produce written proof, the presentment said.

In the fall of 2005, the officers began asking about coverage for their injuries. Neither Newsome, account manager Batipps, nor claims advocate Magovern could locate rejection forms to prove lack of coverage.

That's when Batipps spoke to Magovern, then told Newsome to forge the document, the presentment said. Newsome did so, signing and backdating the forms to predate the accident, the presentment said.

Brown, as vice president of USI, then used the documents to tell the officers they weren't covered.

Egan told the grand jury he had nearly $1 million in unpaid medical expenses. Most was covered by worker's compensation, but not the lost income and employment. He testified that he still owed substantial medical bills.

Brown "testified that backdating is a common practice in the insurance industry and that this was 'no big deal,' " the presentment said.

"They think this is a big joke," said James McEldrew, a lawyer for Egan. He said Egan hoped to attend law school and be a prosecutor.

"He said, if he can't put away criminals as a patrolman, he wants to do it as a lawyer," McEldrew said.