Ex-Finest charged in 9/11 disability con
A former NYPD sergeant was charged Thursday with a trashy 9/11 disability scam in which she falsely claimed to have spent hundreds hours toiling at a Staten Island landfill filled with dangerous World Trade Center debris.
Sally Spinosa, 55, filed paperwork with the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund stating she worked at the Fresh Kills landfill for two hours, 62 days straight from Sept. 20, 2001, to Nov. 20, 2001.
In reality, Spinosa was pregnant on parental leave or doing limited work outside the offices of the NYPD’s Patrol Services Bureau, prosecutors charged.
Fresh Kills served as a forensic site for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Some 1.8 million tons of twin towers debris were dumped at the landfill, and workers searched the debris for human remains and other evidence from the attacks.
The toxic material has caused elevated rates of cancer among people who lived near or worked at the site.
Spinosa, of Freehold, N.J., submitted “proof of presence” paperwork in connection with an application for 9/11-related compensation that included a signature from her supervisor declaring they’d both supervised subordinates at the landfill, prosecutors charged.
That document, according to prosecutors, was fraudulent. The officer said he never signed the paperwork.
Spinosa’s application in 2014 was denied, but she reapplied in 2017 and 2018 using the same false information, according to the complaint. She retired from the NYPD in July 2019.
“Sally Spinosa exploited her position by brazenly — and falsely — claiming to have worked hundreds of hours in the recovery effort,” Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said.
Spinosa’s lawyer, Andrew Quinn, declined comment.