By Keith Gushard
The Meadville Tribune
MEADVILLE, Pa. — The widow of a Crawford County jail officer who died in the line of duty in 2010 will receive a more than $250,000 worker’s compensation insurance payout over the next dozen years.
Crawford County Board of Commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved an annuity payment plan for Mary Janis Chapin for a worker’s compensation settlement agreement. She is the widow of Gary Chapin, a Crawford County corrections officer. Gary Chapin was 49 when he died Nov. 15, 2010, from injuries received while working at the county jail.
Under the settlement approved Thursday, Mrs. Chapin will receive $1,997.80 a month for 12 years guaranteed with the first payment starting July 15, 2015, and the last payment June 15, 2027. The payments will total $287,683.20 over the life of the annuity.
Tribune attempts to contact Mrs. Chapin on Thursday for comment were unsuccessful. Tribune calls to her attorney, Douglas Olcott, weren’t returned.
“It was agreeable to all parties,” Francis Weiderspahn Jr., commissioner chairman, said of the settlement following Thursday’s meeting.
“It was an unfortunate thing,” C. Sherman Allen, another commissioner, said of Gary Chapin’s death.
The payments to Mrs. Chapin will be through Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., the county’s worker’s compensation insurer at the time of the death. The payments will come from an annuity through Pacific Life Corp., according to the agreement approved Thursday.
Gregory Brown, now 28, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in October 2011 in a criminal trial in Crawford County Court of Common Pleas for fatally injuring Gary Chapin.
Brown currently is serving a 30-to 60-month sentence handed down by Judge Mark Stevens in December 2011. It was the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
Brown’s sentence for Chapin’s death started to be served in April 2012, after Brown finished serving a 15- to 54-month state sentence for a robbery conviction in Erie County, according to online court records.
Stevens ordered Brown’s 30- to 60-month sentence not to begin until Brown’s Erie County sentence was completed.
Brown was an inmate at Crawford County jail in Saegertown on Oct. 13, 2010, while Chapin was working as a corrections officer that night.
At Brown’s trial, the Crawford County District Attorney’s Office argued that Brown threw Chapin violently to the floor while Chapin was trying to handcuff Brown.
Brown’s defense attorneys argued Brown and Chapin had their legs tangled up as Chapin attempted to handcuff Brown and that the incident was an accident.
The Crawford County Coroner’s Office ruled Chapin’s death a homicide due to blunt force trauma after an autopsy found Chapin had suffered a skull fracture; bruising on both the right and left sides of his brain; a broken right collarbone; and four fractured ribs on the side and two rear rib fractures as well.
Chapin never regained consciousness following the incident and died of his injuries Nov. 15, 2010.
Pennsylvania State Police had charged Brown with third-degree homicide and companion charges of aggravated assault and assault by prisoner.
The jury of seven men and five women found Brown not guilty of third-degree murder and not guilty of aggravated assault and assault by prisoner, but guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Brown was housed in Crawford County jail on Oct. 13, 2010, after transferring in from State Correctional Institution at Albion. Brown was at the jail awaiting a hearing in Crawford County Court of Common Pleas for allegedly violating a no-contact order involving his estranged wife. Brown had been out on state parole after serving the 15-month minimum on the 15- to 54-month sentence from Erie County, but his parole was revoked because of the no-contact finding.
Chapin, who had worked at the jail for three years, became the first Crawford County corrections officer to die from injuries sustained during performance of his duties. Before joining the jail staff, Chapin worked as a police officer on the Linesville, Jamestown, Conneaut Lake, West Mead Township and Cambridge Springs police forces.