CHARLESTON – A retired officer with the Nitro Police Department says that although he is fully vested in the department’s pension program, the administrators are forcing him to wait until he reaches age 50 to receive benefits.
Donald A. Scurlock filed a lawsuit April 25 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the Board of Trustees of the Nitro Policeman Pension and Relief Trust Fund.
According to the complaint, Scurlock served as a National Guard crewman in the U.S. Army from 1991 to 2005 and as a full-time member of the Nitro police force from 1996 until the present. According to the suit, Scurlock has passed the 20-year mark with the police department, entitling him to full pension benefits. However, once he announced his intent to retire in January, Scurlock says he received a letter from the pension administrators stating he would have to wait until he was 50 before seeing any of the pension benefits.
Scurlock seeks a declaratory judgment entitling him to draw pension benefits immediately, as well as retroactively back to Feb. 1, plus legal expenses. He is represented by attorney Michael J. Del Giudice of Ciccarello, Del Giudice & LaFon in Charleston.
Judge Carrie L. Webster is assigned to the case.
Kanawha Circuit Court Case number 16-C-609