John Trapp worked as a firefighter in the city of Burbank, Illinois from 1988 until 2017. In January 2017, the fire chief was notified of an inappropriate relationship between Trapp and a 17-year-old girl working as a fire department volunteer and placed Trapp on administrative leave pending a criminal investigation. On January 17, 2017, Trapp applied for retirement benefits, and was granted a regular retirement pension benefit.
On December 5, 2019, Trapp pled guilty to felony child pornography possession charges. He was convicted and served a six-month prison sentence. A provision of the Illinois pension statute provides that “none of the benefits provided under this Article shall be paid to any person who is convicted of any felony relating to or arising out of or in connection with service as a firefighter.” According to the plea, Trapp admitted that he had “a sexual relationship with Victim A while Trapp was employed as a firefighter and Victim A worked as a high school cadet/intern at the ‘same fire department.’” In addition to the sexual relationship, Trapp induced the cadet to send him sexual images and videos.
The Board of the City Firefighters’ Pension Fund (Board) held a hearing in July 2022, to determine whether Trapp’s felony conviction disqualified him from receiving his pension benefits. Several months later, the Board issued a written decision concluding that Trapp’s felony conviction “related to, arose out of, or was in connection with” his service as a City firefighter. Trapp challenged the Board’s decision in court and lost. He appealed again.
The appellate court affirmed, finding that the Board properly discontinued Trapp’s pension benefits, despite the conviction occurring after his retirement. Trapp made several unsuccessful procedural arguments. Trapp argued that the Board’s decision to discontinue his benefits was untimely, because typically parties have 35 days to appeal from a Board decision. The Court noted that the Board’s action to discontinue benefits was not an “appeal” from its initial award of pension benefits, but rather a separate legal proceeding dealing with a separate legal issue.
Trapp also argued that the Board lacked jurisdiction to cancel his benefits because it was aware of the pending criminal charges against him when it granted his pension benefits yet failed to “retain jurisdiction” following its award. The Court noted that Trapp’s argument would produce absurd results, namely that the Board would have to retain jurisdiction in every single award of pension benefits, should it thereafter determine that the continued payment of benefits might violate another part of the statute.
The Court determined that the legislature explicitly prohibited the Board from paying benefits to a firefighter convicted of a felony in connection with official duties. Therefore, the Board properly held a hearing and discontinued Trapp’s benefits, after concluding that his child pornography conviction was related to his service as a City firefighter.
Trapp v. City of Burbank Firefighters’ Pension Fund, No. 1-23-1311, 2024 IL App (1st) 231311 (App. Ct. Ill., 2024).