March 6, 2009

James W. Glass
Chief Financial Officer
68 Mitchell Street, Suite 1100
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-0312

Mr. Glass:

I am writing to request your help to stop the deplorable treatment of disabled police officers
by City of Atlanta Finance Department employee Michelle “Mickey” Walker.

These disabled officers are:

Detective James J. Biello. JJ is paralyzed from the neck down after being shot in line
of duty, in 1987.
Detective Robert H. Buffington. Bob has vascular and neurological medical problems
as a result of being shot in 1979.
Officer Patricia Cocciolone, Pat has a brain injury and multiple other wounds after
being shot in 1994. Pat’s partner John Sowa was killed in the attack.
Sgt. Ryan Phinney. Ryan is a paraplegic after receiving a spinal cord injury in a car
crash.
Detective Richard Williams, Richard is a paraplegic after being shot in 1987.

All five of these officers invite you to contact them for details regarding their experiences.

My concerns are listed below:

• In the past 18 months several of these officers have experienced life threatening or
painful episodes they feel are the result of actions by Michele “Mickey” Walker.
• In addition to specific instances where medical care, medication and equipment
have been withheld and/or delayed, these officers report a pattern of authoritarian
and irresponsible bullying by Walker.
• There is also a pattern of manipulating payments that has caused significant stress
on these officers. This delay and manipulation of payments has required judicial
intervention to seek remedy for violations of Georgia’s workers comp code. The
City of Atlanta then repeatedly delays these court actions, only at the last minute to
concede and approve the necessary and physician prescribed care and or
equipment or to settle the overdue payments. This happened to Sgt. Phinney three
weeks ago. This is at worst a life threatening delay of critical medical care; at best it
is harassment and a deliberate and repeated abuse of process.
 • Several of these disabled officers have been threatened by collection agencies
regarding bills that were not paid in a timely manner by NovaPro Risk and the City
of Atlanta.
• This pattern of abuse causes me to raise the question of whether this is due to
incompetence, malice, deliberate indifference, or a counterproductive attempt by
Ms. Walker and Nova Pro Risk to save money.
• In addition to the deplorable treatment of retired officers, I have heard of numerous
complaints by active duty Atlanta Police officers who have been injured on duty and
have had negative experiences with Mickey Walker.

One Officers Experience:

J.J. Biello was considered by former City of Atlanta Worker’s Comp employees to be a
model patient. JJ’s physical recovery has been limited, and he is a full quadriplegic with
only minimal use of one arm, but he has lived a full life despite his injury. JJ was
nominated by the City of Atlanta and won a State of Georgia award as the handicapped
person of the year. He waselected to serve as a county commissioner in Cherokee County
and served in that post for 14 years. JJ currently serves on the Cherokee Co. Recreation
Authority, and on the State of Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Board.

JJ has had multiple problems with Mickey Walker as well as with Nova Pro Risk, the third
party Administrator (TPA) of City of Atlanta workers comp claims. Despite Mr. Biello’s 20
year record of working closely and cooperatively with COA Workers Compensation, he has
seen Mickey Walker change this relationship to conditions that he has described as
“contentious, adversarial and spiteful.” This harassment has compelled JJ to retain a
lawyer to obtain life sustaining medication, care and equipment. This has been expensive
and time consuming, as well as mentally and emotionally exhausting for Mr. Biello. Surely
it has also been expensivefor the City of Atlanta given the legal fees and time it takes to
process these claims and counterclaims.

The most recent example of the dreadful treatment of JJ Biello has been the deliberate
withholding of repair of his primary wheelchair. This delay resulted in JJ breaking his leg.
Mr. Biello has told me how Ms. Walker and staff at Nova Pro Risk have interfered and
delayed the repair of the wheelchair from September 2008 thru the end of January 2009.
He repeatedly requested that the chair be repaired; even complained because the
wheelchair he was using did not fit properly. It was not until AFTER Mr. Biello broke both
bones in his lower leg that the wheelchair repair was approved! J.J.’s foot slipped from
the footrest and because he has no feeling in his extremities he inadvertently struck a door
frame while moving through his home. This was preventable. I am informed that most of
the five month delay in returning Mr. Biello to his primary wheelchair was due to
interference and refusal of the COA and Nova Pro staff to approve the repair.

What has changed?

All these critically disabled officers have asked the same question: What changed to make
the conditions, treatment and care so adversarial and spiteful? Most of these officers
believe that the answer can be traced back to the hiring of Michele “Mickey” Walker by the
City of Atlanta as the Worker’s Compensation Administrator.

These examples of the lack of care for disabled officers make me sick. I have to ask why
anyone would continue to work and put themselves at risk for the City of Atlanta once they
learn of the way that Atlanta mistreats injured police officers. It is shameful.

Dr. Jefferey Salamone of Grady Hospital has also had negative experiences with Michele
“Mickey” Walker when she interfered in the care of injured and wounded Atlanta officers.
For additional details I recommend that you contact Dr. Jefferey Salamone and Sergeant
Scott Kreher.

I ask that you investigate Ms. Walker’s involvement in potential patient abuse given this
pattern of deliberate withholding and delaying of medical care, medication, equipment and
payment of vendors. Recent critical care incidents that Ms. Walker has been involved in
include withholding of physician prescribed oxygen, denial of vehicle repair, delay of
wheelchair repair, denial of essential surgery, withholding and delay of prescribed pain and
other essential medications.

Mr. Glass, I ask that you take the time to read the attached letters provided by Sgt. Ryan
Phinney and Robert H. Buffington, and view the videos of J.J. Biello on the enclosed CD.
Please investigate the conduct of Finance Department Workers Compensation employee
Michele “Mickey” Walker. On behalf of these officers I ask that you please take action to
alleviate their suffering.

Sincerely,

Lou Arcangeli
Deputy Chief of Police, Retired
Atlanta Police Department
P.O. Box 5445
Atlanta, GA 31107
larcangeli@yahoo.com

Cc: Mayor Shirley Franklin

Attachments: CD containing three short videos from J.J. Biello
Letters from Sgt. Ryan Phinney and Robert H. Buffington