Indicted Philadelphia cop wants $65,000 pension

Do you really, really want to get people's blood boiling in this cash-strapped city?

Tell 'em a federally indicted public employee is trying to collect his pension.

That was the case yesterday, as word spread that Daniel Castro, the Philadelphia police inspector who was charged by the feds on Nov. 5 for hiring some muscle to reclaim $90,000 that he lost on a real-estate deal, had told the city's Board of Pensions and Retirement that he wants to retire and receive his pension money.

Castro, 47, a 25-year veteran of the force whose salary was $97,015, stands to collect about $65,000 a year. He has an appointment with the pension board next month to complete his retirement paperwork.

He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment last week to orchestrating an extortion scheme and accepting a bribe for running a license plate through a law-enforcement database.

Mayor Nutter took a wait-and-see approach to the matter when asked for a reaction yesterday.

"We'll see what happens as it works its way through the system, but I believe you cannot legally stop someone from retiring," Nutter said. "They have a right to walk in and file their papers."

That doesn't mean Castro will get to keep his pension, Nutter added.

"If there is a conviction, the law provides, given the nature of the criminal activity and . . . you did it as part of your job, the pension can be taken away," Nutter said. "So that story is far from over. You have seen pensions taken away from public officials who were convicted of wrongdoing."

Castro's attorney, William Brennan, declined to comment last night.

John McGrody, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said Castro "has a right to his pension" and is entitled to due process.

In March, the pension board suspended the benefits of Rosemary DiLacqua, a veteran police detective who was sentenced last December to a year and a day in a federal lockup for accepting $34,000 in secret payments and loans while she was the board president of the Philadelphia Academy Charter School.

Six months before being sentenced, DiLacqua retired and began collecting a $2,489-per-month pension. The board moved to suspend her pension at the urging of city Inspector General Amy Kurland, who claimed DiLacqua had lost the right to collect a pension by defrauding the school.

The city also revoked the pension of former Councilman Rick Mariano, who was recently released from federal prison after serving six years for corruption.

The city is appealing a ruling in June by a Common Pleas judge that Mariano's contributions to his pension were improperly confiscated.

Chapter 22-1300 of the city code states that a city employee could lose retirement benefits only if he or she pleads or is found guilty of perjury; accepting or offering a bribe; engaging in graft or corruption; theft, embezzlement or willful misapplication of city funds; malfeasance in office, or engaging in conspiracy to commit any of the above.

Earlier this year, Councilman Frank Rizzo said he was considering hearings on whether the code should be modified to include penalties for cops and city employees convicted of other serious offenses.