Mancino, III, Dominic v. City of Westmoreland

2022 TN WC 14
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedFebruary 10, 2022
Docket2021-04-0181
StatusPublished

This text of 2022 TN WC 14 (Mancino, III, Dominic v. City of Westmoreland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mancino, III, Dominic v. City of Westmoreland, 2022 TN WC 14 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2022).

Opinion

FILED Feb 10, 2022 01:33 PM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSEE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS AT COOKEVILLE

DOMINIC MANCINO, III, ) Docket No.: 2021-04-0181 Employee, ) v. ) State File No.: 42986-2021 CITY OF WESTMORELAND, ) Employer, ) Judge Robert Durham And ) PUBLIC ENTITY PARTNERS, ) Insurer. )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER DENYING BENEFITS

This Court held an Expedited Hearing on February 1, 2022. Mr. Mancino seeks an order requiring Westmoreland to provide benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder that he allegedly incurred while dealing with a distraught mother of an overdose victim. The Court holds that Mr. Mancino did not provide sufficient evidence to show that he is likely to prove at trial that he suffers from compensable PTSD and denies his requests.

History of Claim

Lay Testimony

Westmoreland hired Mr. Mancino to work as a policeman in 2018 and a year later was promoted to sergeant. Mr. Mancino’s job involved the usual confrontations that occur with police work.

In addition to his job, Mr. Mancino had other significant stressors in his life. He was involved in a lawsuit against a previous employer and had sole responsibility for raising his two young children after a contentious divorce. He suffered from chronic hypertension, and given his work on the night shift and his parental responsibilities, he only slept a few hours each day.

On January 23, 2021, Mr. Mancino and another officer responded to a call about a drug overdose. Mr. Mancino had many past encounters with the victim and his mother and

1 built a relationship with them. Upon arrival, the officers found the victim on the floor. The victim had also defecated on himself. The other officer attempted CPR, while Mr. Mancino collected evidence. He also had to deal with the mother, who was frantic, screaming, weeping and repeatedly asking if her son were dead. He testified that this was the first time he ever had to assist a distraught mother at the scene of a drug overdose.

Mr. Mancino stated that, while he had been through many stressful and traumatic events as an officer, this incident affected him in a way he had never experienced before. He kept reliving the scene over and over. In the weeks that followed, he had daily nightmares, and he drank heavily to stave them off. However, he did not tell anyone at the police station of his difficulties.

Mr. Mancino suffered a heart attack on February 16 and filed a workers’ compensation claim afterward. 1 He was interviewed on March 30 by the carrier. Mr. Mancino admitted to the typical stress faced by police officers but stated that he had no unusual stressors recently. He could think of nothing that might have precipitated his heart attack and did not mention the January incident.

On April 6, Mr. Mancino was on vacation when the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation served him with a search warrant. The agents informed Mr. Mancino that they were investigating charges that he solicited sex from a minor and impounded all of his electronics. Mr. Mancino’s children were visiting their mother at the time, and she refused to let them return once she learned of the allegations. 2

A few days later, Mr. Mancino attended training about PTSD and police suicide. Mr. Mancino testified that, afterward, he believed that he “checked all the boxes” for PTSD. He immediately told another sergeant that he believed he needed help. He thought the sergeant communicated this to Westmoreland Police Chief Steven Jolley.

Chief Jolley and Captain Ray Amalfitano, Mr. Mancino’s immediate supervisor, then met with Mr. Mancino. They discussed the investigation and potential ramifications. Mr. Mancino told Chief Jolley that his “heart is no longer in law enforcement” and cited several stressful incidents, including the drug overdose. He told the Chief that he might be suffering from PTSD. He also said that he was contemplating changing careers.

Chief Jolley responded that he would see if Westmoreland would pay Mr. Mancino through the end of the month while he looked for another job. In the meantime, he was on administrative leave pending the investigation. Mr. Mancino told Chief Jolley that he had called a suicide hotline recently, and he wanted to speak with a counselor but was unable to get an appointment. Captain Amalfitano spoke with a friend at Hope Family Health and

1 That claim is separate from this one. 2 The children are now back in Mr. Mancuso’s custody. 2 was able to get Mr. Mancino an appointment.

At the hearing, Chief Jolley testified that he has been in law enforcement for more than twenty-five years. He stated that a police officer must frequently deal with death, by violence or accident, including by drug overdose. Moreover, distraught loved ones are often present at an accident or crime scene, and police officers are routinely obligated to assist them. He also emphasized that Mr. Mancino was placed on administrative leave because of the criminal investigation and not his alleged PTSD. Chief Jolley admitted that he did not notify Westmoreland’s carrier about Mr. Mancino’s claimed PTSD, but he stated that it was not his job to do so.

Medical Proof

Mr. Mancino saw Tess Cothran, a licensed professional counselor, on April 12. Ms. Cothran noted that Mr. Mancino claimed depressive and trauma symptoms, such as nightmares, repeated memories/thoughts, avoidance, loss of joy, emotional distance, and hypervigilance. Mr. Mancino told her that he had been abusing alcohol for the past six months to avoid nightmares that he attributed to trauma from working in law enforcement, and he had been suffering from symptoms “for a while now.” However, her report did not mention the drug overdose or describe any other specific traumatic incidents. At his next visit, Mr. Mancino stated that he had been having nightmares “for a long time,” but they had become more frequent over the “past six or eight months.”

Ms. Cothran continued to see Mr. Mancino regularly through 2021. While she noted other non-work-related stressors, she did not mention the overdose. In July, she wrote that more than fifty percent of “Mr. Mancino’s posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms are indeed a result of employment experiences.” She did not specify the “experiences.” Mr. Mancino conceded that Ms. Cothran’s earlier notes did not mention the overdose. However, he said that she certainly knew about it, and the notes are merely brief summaries of their lengthy sessions. He also said that it took some time in therapy to realize that the overdose was the inciting event for his PTSD.

In response to Ms. Cothran’s records, Westmoreland submitted an employer’s examination report dated January 21, 2022, from psychiatrist Scott Ruder, M.D. His report states that Mr. Mancino described the January incident but did not say it was significantly different or more disturbing than previous calls for overdoses. Mr. Mancino said that he drank as much as a “1.75 liter of tequila” a day, January through May, to sleep without nightmares. He explained a common nightmare was hearing the victim’s mother screaming, although the nightmares were not as intense as before. He also described apathy and a persistent low mood and energy but denied panic attacks or flashbacks.

Dr. Ruder concluded that Mr. Mancino did not have a “mental injury under the workers’ compensation law.” He further found that a PTSD diagnosis was

3 unwarranted. He noted inconsistencies, such as Mr. Mancino’s alcohol use, and also found it significant that the PTSD claim occurred only days after being served with a search warrant. As to the depressive symptoms,

Dr. Ruder observed that Mr.

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2022 TN WC 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mancino-iii-dominic-v-city-of-westmoreland-tennworkcompcl-2022.