Crime & Safety

Reports: Ex-Firefighter/Weightlifter Found Not Guilty of Fraud

Alberto Arroyo, who said he suffered a disabling fall in a Jamaica Plain fire station, was acquitted by a jury of trying to get a disability pension under false pretenses.

A former firefighter whom the city fired after learning he competed in bodybuilding competitions while claiming disability has been found not guilty of fraud, according to the Herald.

Alberto Arroyo said he injured himself falling down the stairwell at a Jamaica Plain firehouse. That, he said, aggravated a previous injury he suffered in 2000 pulling a hose off Engine 7 in the Back Bay, according to the Herald.

The case was seen by some as a textbook example of a public employee gaming the system.

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“We’re extremely gratified that the jury was able to consider all of the evidence and put aside the public outcry,” his attorney, Timothy Watkins, told the Globe. “The public didn’t know the facts. The system worked.”

For more on this story, visit the Herald and Globe.

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