Ex-Islip Town worker charged with insurance fraud

A former Islip Town employee has been charged with insurance fraud after investigators found that while collecting workers' compensation payments he was working as a bouncer at an all-nude club in West Babylon, the Suffolk district attorney's office said Wednesday.

John D. Livingston, 38, who worked as an automotive equipment operator in the town parks department until May 2009, pleaded not guilty on May 4 to a felony charge of third-degree insurance fraud and was released on his own recognizance.

Officials said he defrauded the town of more than $17,000 in medical bills and indemnity payments.

The Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, which is representing Livingston, declined Wednesday to comment on the case.

Livingston could not be reached for comment.

Islip labor relations director Robert Finnegan said Livingston, who had drawn a town salary of $44,683, filed a disability claim in January 2009, saying that he had slipped on ice, injured his back and neck and could not work or even drive.

A month later he was disciplined by the town for an incident in which, Finnegan said, Livingston used "abusive and profane language and made verbal threats to a town employee" who was responsible for signing in employees on workers' comp each morning.

Acting on an anonymous tip that Livingston was working at Cherri Bombs, an adult entertainment club in West Babylon, the town in March 2009 launched an investigation into his disability claim.

Islip is self-insured. Its case management company, RMSCO Inc., uses a subcontractor, County Wide Technical Services, to conduct surveillance on employees suspected of fraud.

Finnegan said private investigators observed Livingston driving to Cherri Bombs, which according to its website offers lap dances, movies and live shows.

Cherri Bombs management gave the town copies of its surveillance video, showing Livingston working inside the club.

The town turned its findings over to the Suffolk County district attorney's office, which began its investigation in January of this year.

Robert Clifford, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Livingston worked at the club from May 2008 to April 2009.

"He was a bouncer," Clifford said. "He was on the books, collecting a paycheck . . . $10 an hour, 40 hours a week."

A woman who answered the phone at Cherri Bombs Wednesday said the manager was not available.

Records show that Livingston resigned from his town position on May 8, 2009, after the town informed him that he faced disciplinary charges for refusing to attend meetings to discuss returning to work on light duty, and for filing a false workers' comp claim.

RMSCO suspended Livingston's workers' comp payments last June, Finnegan said.