New York City- The two rogue cops charged with doing double-duty as mob hit men each collect a tax-free pension worth around $70,000 a year – and will shockingly continue to collect the taxpayer-funded cash even if they are convicted, The Post has learned.
Both Stephen Caracappa, 63, right, and Louis Eppolito, 56, left, had their pensions boosted because they suffered heart attacks, sources said.
Their conditions entitled them to 25 percent higher pension payouts under a controversial law called the Heart Bill.
Normally, police officers on the force for 20 years or more receive a pension equal to 50 percent of their highest single-year salary. But it jumps to 75 percent and is tax-free if they develop a heart condition – even if the illness emerges years after the officer has retired, regardless of age, genetics or lifestyle.
Even if Caracappa and Eppolito are convicted of their alleged role in as many as 12 killings, the pension cannot be touched.
New York City police officers can lose their pensions if they are fired for official misconduct, but Caracappa and Eppolito retired more than a decade ago.
Cops pay a portion of each of their taxpayer-funded city paychecks into the pension fund.
New York state law does not allow state or city-run pensions to be rescinded. In New Jersey, a Treasury Department committee can decide to take back a state employee’s pension on an individual basis.
Eppolito began collecting the pension when he retired in 1989 after suffering the first of two heart attacks. He had a second one last year and underwent triple-bypass surgery. Caracappa retired in the early 1990s and has had one heart attack. He has also battled cancer.
In addition to their pensions, both men continued to work after retiring from the NYPD – Eppolito at a Las Vegas Lexus dealership and Caracappa as a private investigator at the Southern Nevada Women’s Detention Center.
The Heart Bill asserts that a heart condition, even if it develops after the officer retires, is likely job-related, due to high stress. Eligibility is determined after a checkup by the Police Pension Fund’s medical board.
The measure also applies to firefighters, correction officers, sanitation workers and emergency medical technicians. Some politicians have been pushing to extend it to court officers and court clerks as well.
There have been worries that the more employees to which the measure applies, the higher the cost to the state and the city.
In flush times, the funds – which total billions of dollars – help cover their own costs through interest payments. In lean times, the funds experience shortfalls that the state is required to cover.