Police Officer With PTSD Ordered Back to Work in New Role

Thursday, March 9, 2017 | 0

The Orlando Police Department has ordered an officer diagnosed with PTSD back to work, or he faces the possibility of termination.

Gerry Realin
(WUSF photo)

Gerry Realin was on a team of officers who bagged and removed bodies from the Pulse nightclub on June 12 after a shooter killed 49 and injured scores of others. Realin has been unable to work since the attack and has filed two petitions for benefits with the state Office of Judges of Compensation Claims.

The department has created a new job for Realin at City Hall, where he would administer a bike safety program in the city’s red light camera enforcement department. Realin was supposed to report to work Monday but didn’t because of doctors’ orders, his wife told WUSF Public Media.

Under Florida’s workers’ compensation law, Realin is not eligible for lost wages, but the department has been paying his salary anyway.

Deputy Chief Orlando Rolon told the public broadcasting station that Realin’s new position is not police work and that his absences could be construed as insubordination.

Realin’s Maitland claimants’ attorney Paolo Longo told WUSF “you can tell just from their posture that they’re tired” of paying Realin's salary. “That’s what typically happens in a workers’ comp case is the employer pushes and pushes and pushes to get someone back to work, and they say, well, you refused, so you’re fired.”

Realin is scheduled for a mediation hearing in his workers’ compensation cases on May 9.

His plight has inspired a slew of PTSD presumption bills in the newly convened Legislature.