Officer Receives $95K PTSD Settlement after Fatal Shootings

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The Wauwatosa Common Council in Wisconsin voted 11-0 on Sept. 29 to approve a $95,000 workers’ compensation settlement for former police officer Joseph Mensah, related to a PTSD claim he filed in April 2025, which will be paid through the city’s workers’ compensation fund rather than insurance.
Mensah, who fatally shot three people over a five-year span starting ending in 2020, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in all three shootings by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, which ruled each a justified act of self-defense.
Mayor Dennis McBride said the settlement is separate from and unrelated to the $125,000 separation package Mensah received when he left the department in November 2020, noting that by law a separation agreement cannot waive or settle a workers’ compensation claim.
Mensah is separately pursuing a “duty disability” claim through the state citing the “extraordinary stress standard” for public safety positions, which the city denied; he has filed an appeal with the state.

A teacher at Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina is appealing a denied workers’ compensation claim after suffering a heart attack in November 2025, shortly after extinguishing a bathroom fire at the school. His cardiologist attributed the heart attack to the “acute stress” of responding to the fire.
His claim was initially approved but reversed in January, with the denial stating there was “no injury by accident in the course/scope of employment.” He interprets the decision as the district determining that putting out the fire wasn’t part of his job duties.
His cardiologist’s letter supporting the claim states the heart attack caused permanent damage requiring lifelong medical therapy, and Cooper says the denial has left him paying $5,000 to $6,000 out of pocket for related medical expenses.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools said it cannot comment on the personnel matter but noted that workers’ compensation coverage for public school employees is provided by the State Board of Education, with the district only assisting employees in accessing that coverage.

The workers’ compensation fraud case against a New Fairfield, Connecticut man was dismissed this week in state Superior Court in Danbury, following his death at home on Sept. 17.
David Stevenson had been facing a charge of fraudulent claim or receipt of benefits after allegedly staging a fall in June 2025 while working as a security officer for Securitas at the Boehringer Ingelheim research and development building in Ridgefield. Surveillance footage showed him acting suspiciously and lowering himself to the floor in a manner investigators described as “very controlled and deliberate.”
After the incident, a healthcare provider certified Stevenson as temporarily totally disabled, making him eligible for wage-replacement benefits through his employer’s workers’ compensation insurance.