Report: Roethlisberger provided 'perks' to PSP officials
By Carl Prine, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger provided "perks" to Pennsylvania State Police officials by giving them seats in his private luxury suite at Heinz Field and appearing at their charity fundraisers, the Tribune-Review has learned.
Those were some of the findings this month by an arbitrator who rejected Trooper Ed Joyner's appeal to return to his off-duty work for Roethlisberger following unproven allegations that Roethlisberger raped a woman last year in a Milledgeville, Ga., bar.
State Police Lt. Col. John Brown, now retired, yanked Joyner's supplementary employment approval on April 19, 2010. Joyner, 42, filed a union grievance to get it back.
During his Oct. 6 grievance hearing in Harrisburg, Joyner admitted that the scope of his moonlighting duties for Roethlisberger expanded after he began working for the Super Bowl star in 2005. Back then, Joyner told state police superiors that he expected to work no more than 10 hours weekly chauffeuring Roethlisberger to NFL games, collecting his fan mail and fielding telephone calls.
But Joyner's job grew to include "retrieving items from the hotel room if Roethlisberger needed something while playing in a celebrity golf tournament; tipping pilots, limousine drivers, etc., on trips; contacting stores to arrange for private shopping trips; detailing Roethlisberger's automobiles; cutting his grass; contacting contractors to obtain quotes for work around the house or landscaping," according to the grievance hearing decision issued on May 12 and obtained by the Trib.
Joyner, a recruiter and patrolman assigned to Troop B in Washington, Pa., "was actually performing duties that amounted to whatever Mr. Roethlisberger needed someone to do," wrote arbitrator John M. Skonier.
Joyner's testimony clashes with state police pay stubs provided to the Trib under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know law. From 2005 through 2008, Joyner's police overtime pay totaled nearly $71,000. In 2009, Joyner logged 602 hours of state police overtime -- worth $32,105 -- despite his expanded duties for Roethlisberger........
Read more: Report: Roethlisberger provided 'perks' to PSP officials - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_738744.html#ixzz1NSlllPuX
