Patrolman Michael Solitro III was on the police force for just 12 days when he and another officer responded to a fight outside Fidas restaurant in January 2000.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 23, 2006

BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The city Retirement Board awarded a disability pension yesterday to the rookie police officer who fatally shot Sgt. Cornel Young Jr., a fellow police officer.

Patrolman Michael Solitro III had been on the police force for just 12 days when he and Patrolman Carlos A. Saraiva responded to a fight outside Fidas restaurant on Jan. 28, 2000. Young, who was off duty, had drawn his gun to break up the brawl, and Solitro and Saraiva mistook him for a suspect and shot him.

Solitro tried to return to duty and worked for about a month but could not handle the stress, said police union president Robert Paniccia.

"He got pretty much tortured after that incident," Paniccia said. "He had doubts about his ability to perform his duty and it was causing a lot of strain."

Both he and Saraiva have been on injured-on-duty status receiving their full salaries tax-free. Saraiva never returned to work after the shooting and is also seeking a disability pension. Both receive an annual salary of $46,600.

Solitro was the focus of much of the litigation that followed the shooting. A jury found that Solitro had violated Young's civil rights in 2003, but a federal judge threw out the claims saying there was not enough evidence.

The quality of Solitro's training was also challenged in a lawsuit against the city and Police Department, but lawyers for Young's family failed to prove that deficient training led to the shooting.

Earlier this month, Young's mother, Liesa Young, announced that she was abandoning her five-year legal battle over her son's death.

The Retirement Board issued the accidental disability pension to Solitro based on the evaluation of three doctors who said he suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder.

An accidental disability pension qualifies Solitro to receive 67 percent of his annual salary.. He will receive about $31,000 annually, tax-free.

"I think it's long overdue," Paniccia said. "There's a stigma attached to police work that we are unemotional, or unfeeling supermen, but posttraumatic stress disorder is a legitimate ailment, injury. It's psychological rather than physical, but it's about time that it's recognized that people are susceptible to it."

Joseph J. Pezza, Solitro's lawyer said the psychological effect of the shooting was too much.

"His lifelong goal was to be a police officer, but right now, it's impossible for him to ever be a police officer again with what happened," Pezza said. "It was an extraordinarily bad event. No police officer could go through that and recover, in my opinion."

Pezza said Solitro's life has been in limbo for the past six years, but the approval of the pension will bring closure.

Saraiva, who served on the police force for 3 1/2 years, attempted to get an accidental disability in 2001, but the Retirement Board denied it based on advice from its medical adviser. The board ruled that PTSD was a sickness, not an injury.

The City Solicitor's office was asked yesterday to explain why the city's position on PTSD was reversed, but no explanation was provided.

Paniccia said the Police Department administration endorsed Solitro's request for an accidental disability pension.

"The Police Department has a certain number of individuals who have been out injured for a long period and we know they are never going to come back to work," Paniccia said. He added that the department needs to make room for new officers.

The police administration also asked the Retirement Board to reconsider Saraiva's pension request.

"It was clear that both officers weren't going to return to work," said police Cmdr. Paul Kennedy. "From their perspective and from the organization's perspective, we had to have some closure to it."

Kennedy said the administration considers each case carefully.

"The overriding factor for us would be, does the injury or does the circumstance dictate that they are entitled?" he said. "It wouldn't be, 'Hey, we need that slot.' That would be foolish and we wouldn't do that. We take a look at each case individually. If they qualify and we can be supportive, then we will. If we don't think they qualify, they we would come out as opposed to it."

Saraiva's lawyer, Joseph F. Penza Jr., said Saraiva is pursuing a new hearing and he is being evaluated by a new set of doctors.

He also suffers from PTSD, Penza said.

"He always wanted to be a police officer, but one could imagine the stress of coming onto a scene where you are facing similar circumstances and he has a split second to make a decision to shoot or not shoot," Penza said. "He puts himself in jeopardy, he puts his fellow officers in jeopardy, he puts the victims in jeopardy."

ccrowley@projo.com / (401) 277-7376