Scoppetta Likely to Disdain Mercy for Cocaine-User

NICHOLAS SCOPPETTA: Implacable on drug use.

If the case of Firefighter John Schroeder is any indication, the future doesn't look bright for Firefighter Joseph Maresca.

The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings recommended in November that although Mr. Maresca defied the Fire Department's zero-tolerance policy on drugs by using cocaine, he should be allowed to retire with a pension because his abuse was a result of post-traumatic stress disorder he acquired after losing coworkers on 9/11 and working at Ground Zero.

Schroeder Fired Without Pension

Mr. Schroeder received a similar OATH recommendation more than a year earlier. He had tested positive for cocaine, although he denied ever using it, admitting that he drank heavily as a result of stress related to 9/11. OATH recommended in September of 2007 that he be permitted to retire so he could continue to receive his health and pension benefits, which he said he needed to survive. Mr. Schroeder had also suffered from lung damage as a result of his work at Ground Zero. In May 2005, Mr. Schroeder's application for a disability pension was approved by a panel and forwarded to the FDNY's IB Medical Board. "Every day is 9/11 in my life," he said during an interview this past March.

POST-9/11 TRAUMA DEFENSE REJECTED: Firefighter John Schroeder was fired even though an Administrative Law Judge recommended that he be allowed to collect his pension and health benefits after finding that trauma related to 9/11 was a mitigating factor in his testing positive for cocaine use.

Yet, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta ignored the recommenda- tion, terminating him on Nov. 21. Chief FDNY spokesman Francis X. Gribbon said that the department went ahead with the firing because of a "violation of department policy concerning use of illegal substance." If precedent holds, Mr. Maresca, who like Mr. Schroeder was ruled by department doctors to have developed PTSD in the line of duty, will be terminated as well.

Glenn Corbett, an Associate Professor of Fire Science at John Jay Col- lege of Criminal Justice, said the stance by the department is "a mixedbag," because while firefighters shouldn't be using drugs there could be other solutions for cases like those of Firefighters Schroeder and Maresca.

'Treat It Like Alcohol Abuse'

"For a very long time the Fire Department has had various counseling programs to deal with alcohol abuse problems," he said. "You wonder why they couldn't apply those same things to this situation as well, especially if this other entity deemed this as a PTSD thing."

Mr. Gribbon explained that FDNY counseling services treat members who have illegal drug problems, and that this service was expanded after 9/11. There was a different stance, he noted, toward those who came forward to use the service as opposed to those who were found to be using drugs through random testing.

"When you are caught with cocaine in your system, it's not an excuse," Mr. Gribbon said. "If you come forward and avail yourself, you get the help that you need at the department's sole cost and you're not terminated for that."

Mr. Scoppetta's tenure has been marked by an aggressive stance against vice among firefighters. After a drunken New Year's Eve brawl in 2003 left one Staten Island-based Firefighter severely injured, officials began aggressively enforcing the FDNY's prohibition against drinking at work.

A 'Consistent' Hard Line

While Mr. Gribbon said he was sympathetic to firefighters' arguments that their drug use was related to their line-of-duty mental illnesses, the department's zero-tolerance policy was the result of an incident where a Bronx Firefighter crashed a fire truck while he was high on cocaine. The policy, he said, made it unacceptable to let drugs interfere with firefighting.

"The Commissioner has been consistent with this throughout," Mr. Gribbon said. "I don't think anything's going to change. Not under this administration."