California's Strongest Man Accused of Work Comp Fraud

Friday, July 8, 2016 | 2

A bodybuilder who in March clinched the title of California's Strongest Man was on paid injury leave from his job as a Santa Barbara police officer, the city's newsweekly reported.

Jacob Finerty (Imgrum photo)

Jacob Finerty, 27, of Newbury Park, began claiming workers' compensation benefits for an undisclosed injury in June 2013, the Santa Barbara Independent said.

Less than a year later, he placed third in a MAS wrestling competition in Ohio. (The sport requires competitors to sit opposite each other, with their feet pressed against a board between them, and try to pull a stick out of the other's hands.)

A few months after that, he MAS-wrestled for the U.S. in Russia.

In January, local newspaper the Ventura County Star reported Finerty was training for a bodybuilding competition in Los Angeles. A picture printed with the article shows him lifting a 200-pound dumbbell with one hand.

Then, in March, he won the California's Strongest Man contest in Huntington Beach, which required him to lift a concrete Atlas stone and compete in an event called the Farmer's Walk/Tire Flip/Sled-Anchor Chain Drag Death Medley.

The district attorney's office filed a complaint against Finerty on May 24. The Santa Barbara Police Department placed him on unpaid leave shortly after, Police Chief John Crombach told the Independent.

Finerty pleaded not guilty to four felony counts related to filing a false workers' compensation claim during his June 24 arraignment. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Finerty collected a base salary of $85,182.78, or $133,619.05 with benefits, last year and a similar amount the year before, the Independent reported.