She gave up a CalPERS disability pension to go back to work. Now she wants it back

Angie Resendez gave up a CalPERS disability pension and fought for the right to go back to work at the California Department of Justice because she felt well enough to return to duty.

Now, she’s retired and fighting to get that disability pension back.

So far, the California Public Employees Retirement System has rejected the former special agent’s request. Its Board of Administration is scheduled to review her case at its meeting on Wednesday.

Resendez, a state employee since 1990 and a justice department employee since 1994, was “involuntarily” placed on an industrial disability retirement as a result of on-duty injuries, according to a CalPERS report.

Resendez in September 2009 applied for reinstatement and with help from the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association was restored to her position at the justice department in November 2015. The state paid her $652,000 in lost wages and restored her benefits as if she had continued working through the years in which she fought to go back to work.

When she returned to duty, Resendez worked for the justice department as a special agent supervisor responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct among officers from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

“These cases involved extensive traveling from county to county on a daily to weekly basis collecting evidence and interviewing subjects, witnesses, and alleged victims at neighborhoods, businesses, offices, and other remote locations,” Resendez wrote in her statement to the CalPERS board.

After returning to work, Resendez said in her statement that she suffered two job-related injuries to her right shoulder, lower back, right hip and leg and right hand. As a result of those injuries, it became difficult or impossible for her to carry out some of her work duties without extreme pain, she wrote in her statement.

While she was able to qualify at the shooting range, she was unable to perform all the activities required of repetitive shooting, she wrote.

She also was unable to wear a duty belt “without being in significant pain.”

As a result of those injuries, Resendez retired in 2019 and put in for an industrial disability pension. She cited multiple medical evaluations that found that she was unable to work and that her condition was “permanent and stationary.”

She could not be reached for comment for this story. She is representing herself in her appeal to the board.

Disability pensions have tax advantages compared to standard public employment retirement plans, and they allow workers to retire earlier with full benefits.

CalPERS had a physician examine Resendez as part of her application for the disability pension.

The physician found that Resendez “was not substantially incapacitated as a result of any medical condition including any medical condition that was the result of injuries she previously sustained,” according to a CalPERS staff statement submitted to the board.

While the CalPERS doctor found some “mild limitation” with Resendez, there was no indication that Resendez would be unable to fulfill her work duties, according to the CalPERS statement.

“In order to be eligible for disability retirement, competent medical evidence must demonstrate that an individual is substantially incapacitated from performing the usual and customary duties of his or her position. The injury or condition which is the basis of the claimed disability must be permanent or of an extended duration which is expected to last at least 12 consecutive months or will result in death,” the statement said.

In September 2020, Resendez’s case came before Administrative Law Judge Deena Ghaly.

Ghaly wrote that Resendez’s “testimony is credible in describing her injury and incapacitation,” but ultimately ruled to deny the application for industrial disability retirement on the grounds that Resendez did not meet the burden of proof necessary to establish her claim.

Ghaly wrote that “successful prosecution of (Resendez’s) claim requires that she also provide competent medical opinion supporting her claim. The written medical reports introduced at the hearing were the sole evidence (Resendez) relied upon to fulfill this element of her claim and cannot independently support a factual finding.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 5:25 AM with the headline "She gave up a CalPERS disability pension to go back to work. Now she wants it back."