'He's really suffering:' Former Franklin Park detective will get pension after court ruled police work aggravated his PTSD symptoms

Pioneer Press Newspapers (Chicago, IL)

Oct. 21--Six years ago, a Franklin Park detective was called to investigate a woman's accidental death. She had been struck by a Metra train, her body broken and battered. The detective, Christopher Sardo, asked her husband to identify her with a photo of her tattoo.

A Marine Corps veteran who served in a combat support unit during the Gulf War, Sardo was no stranger to horrific scenes.

But the images and the husband's shock and horror, as well as his screams, stayed with Sardo, the scene replaying itself in flashbacks he's had nearly every day since it happened.

Unable to work, or to "function as a human being," Sardo quit the police department within a few months, leaving an 18-year career because of suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, depression, anger and flashbacks.

He applied for line-of-duty disability pension, and it was granted, but the village of Franklin Park contested his claim -- twice. This summer, the First District Appellate Court of Illinois upheld the decision to grant him disability pension, ending a six-year legal process that left Sardo feeling "betrayed," he said, by the suburb he worked for.

An attorney for the village said it exercised its duty to protect its taxpayers, but will abide by the court's decision.

Court interprets the law

Sardo said he struggles daily with the impact of the trauma.

"Some days I wake up and I feel OK. Some days I wake up and I don't want to do anything, I don't want to be a part of life," Sardo said. "I value my wife and my family and my life. But there are times when I wake up and I just feel like I'm in a dark hole again. I'm in a black abyss, and I can't get out."

In his opinion filed last August, Illinois Appellate Judge Michael Hyman wrote that Sardo had "received numerous awards and commendations and had excellent performance reviews" during his time at Franklin Park Police Department, including a review five weeks before the traumatic incident his doctors pointed to as the trigger for his PTSD symptoms.

Three doctors who testified before the board said that though he had functioned well as an officer before the train accident, even through similarly disturbing incidents, the accident caused trauma and aggravated his prior PTSD, leaving him permanently disabled, according to Hyman's summary of Sardo's case before the board.

The Franklin Park Police Pension Board issued its written decision that he should receive a line-of-service disability pension in May 2018.

A month later, the village of Franklin Park challenged the board's decision by filing for administrative review in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

The circuit court upheld the board's ruling, but the village appealed the decision, arguing that because he was diagnosed with PTSD after his military service, the condition was pre-existing and he shouldn't qualify for line-of-service disability.

The village also argued that Sardo's disability "did not result entirely from a single act of duty," according to Hyman's summary of the appeal.

"The village argued that catastrophic injury had to actually be related to his police duty, not from a previous mental or physical condition," said Franklin Park village attorney P. Joseph Montana, who did not argue the case but represents the village.

According to information in the court's decision, the village asserted that case law treats mental and physical disabilities differently, and that officers may only qualify for the pension if the job is "aggravating a pre-existing physical condition."

The court did not agree.

The First District Appellate Court of Illinois sided with Sardo in August.

"Nothing in the Illinois Pension Code ... requires an act of duty be the sole cause of an officer's disability, and the Board may award a police officer a line-of-duty disability pension even if the officer had a preexisting mental condition," Hyman wrote in the opinion of the court.

Because the village did not appeal the case within 35 days, this decision is final, said Thomas Duda, the attorney who represented Sardo in the appeal.

A line-of-duty disability pension would give Sardo 65% of his former detective's salary, and the village has to keep Sardo and his family on its health insurance plan, Duda said.

Duda said cases in which the municipality appeals a pension decision started to become more frequent in the early 2000s after the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act was passed in 1997.

The law made it so employers have to pay the full premium of a health insurance plan for law enforcement officers or firefighters who suffer a catastrophic injury or are killed in the line of duty.

"The village has to keep Mr. Detective Sardo and his family on their health insurance plan and that's what they're complaining about," Duda said.

Montana said he thinks it's a duty of the village to "protect the taxpayers' funds."

"I don't think this is about not wanting to provide medical benefits, or insurance benefits to its officers or firefighters that are injured in the line of duty," Montana said. "If you had a pre-existing condition, and then came in and claimed that it occurred while on the job, I think they have a duty to look at that and make sure that that's the case and go from there."

Montana said the village would abide by the appellate court's decision.

Calls for PTSD education

When asked if his client was satisfied with the outcome of the case, Duda said that Sardo's trauma has had a "profound impact" on his life.

"He's really suffering," Duda said. "He'd much rather be healthy and be a detective and retire the ordinary way, but he is getting the benefits the law provides. But it's a really serious condition."

Sardo said the ongoing legal cases made him re-live the trauma he's experienced, and that he feels frustrated, angry and betrayed that the village would contest the ruling on his disability pension.

"After 18 and a half years, I became mentally disabled because of my job," Sardo said. "I thought that the very people that I felt were my family, that I was a part of for all that time, would be there to take care of me and help me -- and they weren't. They turned their backs on me and my family."

Sardo said it's difficult for police officers and veterans to ask for help, as they worry they'll lose their job or that it's a "sign of weakness." He said he wished the police department had more resources and training about PTSD.

"In the law enforcement, you're the ones that are going to handle the problems, not be the problem," Sardo said. "So, trauma is very difficult to talk about."

His wife and three sons, one of whom is in the Marine Corps, have been his strongest source of support, Sardo said. Sardo said he gets help through counseling and mental health treatment, and that talking about his trauma has helped him stay alive.

Rose Sardo said her husband's trauma and treatment haven't been easy on the family. At times, she said her friends and even therapists thought she shouldn't stay with her husband because of his severe symptoms, but she said he didn't choose to have PTSD.

"I always looked at it as a sickness. He's ill," Rose Sardo said. "If he would've had cancer, would I have left him? So I stayed with him and made sure that he got the help he needed ... You never give up on the person you care about and you never give up on someone with PTSD, because it is an illness."

Christopher and Rose Sardo both urged officers, veterans and their families to reach out for help if they or a loved one seem to be suffering from trauma, especially if they are having thoughts of harming themselves.

"I just want people to know that PTSD in veterans and in law enforcement is real and it does exist," Sardo said. "People say it's not tangible, but let me tell you this, when you act out like I have, it's tangible ... if you suffer PTSD, there are people out there that will help you. You can't do it alone."

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