Saturday, December 16, 2006

by Enrique Martel

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters): The Puerto Rico Justice Department presented charges to a court on Friday accusing former Gov. Pedro Rossello of falsifying documents to obtain a higher pension.

Under the US territory's legal system, a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial. Judge Ada Lopez granted a defense request for a delay because Rossello was away on business, and set a hearing for Dec. 28 in the San Juan District Court.

"This case has lasted for six years, I see no reason why we can't wait a few more days," said defense attorney Harry Padilla.

Rossello is president of the New Progressive Party, which supports US statehood for Puerto Rico and portrays the charges as political persecution by the current anti-statehood administration.

At the end of his second gubernatorial term in 2001, Rossello was awarded an annual pension of $52,500 based on 30 years of government service.

Subsequent probes found no evidence to support Rossello's claim that he worked at a state psychiatric hospital over three summers in the early 1960s. The months in questions were expunged and Rossello was left nine months shy of completing the full 30 years required for the top-level pension.

The pension was cut to $29,536 a year and Rossello was ordered by the retirement administration to pay back $80,248 in excess pension payments.

The former director of Puerto Rico's Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, Jose Acevedo Martinez, was convicted of fraudulently certifying the original pension.

Supporters of Rossello's party raised the money to repay the excess pension but the retirement administrator was still evaluating whether the payment was legal because it could be considered a political contribution.

After losing the gubernatorial election in 2004, Rossello was elected to the Puerto Rico Senate and has stopped collecting the pension.

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