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| Jeffrey Boyle (Police booking photo) |
Posted: Tuesday, 10 November 2009 7:05AM
Confessed arsonist keeps his Fire Dept. pension
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CHICAGO (WBBM/STNG) - He's a former Chicago firefighter, convicted of arson, and he gets to keep his pension.
Ex-Fire Lieutenant Jeffrey "Matches" Boyle, 50, filed a lawsuit challenging the denial of his city pension... and won, according to a broadcast report.
Boyle argued he's entitled to the pension because he did not use Fire Department equipment when he set the fires and committed the acts on his own time.
Boyle was sentenced to six years in prison in 2006 after he confessed to setting a series of fires in Chicago and Park Ridge.
Jeffrey Boyle is the brother of John “Quarters” Boyle, a former city employee who pleaded guilty to shaking down trucking companies seeking enrollment and work in the Hired Truck Program. John Boyle was sentenced in 2005 to seven years in prison.
"His money is in this fund, and under law, he has a right to collect from that fund unless there's a show that his crimes were directly related to his professional performance, which it was not," Tom Needham, Jeffrey Boyle's attorney, told Channel 7.
"There must be a clear and specific connection between the felony committed and the participant's employment," Judge Leroy Martin told Channel 7.
"There is no doubt that Mr. Boyle betrayed the public trust. It's unsettling, nay repugnant that Mr. Boyle should stand poised to collect a pension, but the court is duty bound to apply the law," Martin is quoted as saying.
Jeffrey Boyle pleaded guilty to starting eight fires in the city and suburbs.
Boyle admitted to starting the fires in the city and suburban Park Ridge between 1998 and 2005. Former Boyle defense attorney James Tunick said in 2006 that Boyle’s drinking played a factor in his committing arson, but after Boyle’s arrest in 2005, he immediately began seeking treatment.
“It (the arrest) really was a turning point in his life. He hasn’t had a drink since his arrest. He’s really changed,” Tunick said in 2006. “He’s made a lot of improvements in his life. It’s really kind of amazing.”
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Contents of this site are Copyright 2009 by WBBM. The STNGwire contributed to this report.
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