Former Coventry Fire Chief Pleads Nolo To Pension Fraud

COVENTRY, RI — The former chief of the Coventry Fire District has pleaded no contest to two counts of obtaining money over $1,500 under false pretenses and one count of filing a false document. Paul Labbadia, 52, of North Providence, was accused of collecting $45,000 in state pension benefits which he should not have claimed. He also collected money from North Providence, amounting to $155,000 in medical payments and $23,000 in cost of living adjustments from his pension. He appeared in Superior Court on Thursday.

According to the state Attorney General's office, "the state would have been able to prove Labbadia intended 'to cheat or defraud the town of North Providence' by obtaining retiree medical benefits, and intended 'to cheat or defraud the state of Rhode Island' by receiving pension benefits when he filed a false document with the town when applying for his pension in 2007. He will be sentenced on March 16.

Labbadia was fired from his job with the Coventry Fire District after a WPRI-12 investigation.

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