SAN JOSE, California A Californian former policeman now in jail on burglary charges has been awarded early retirement and a $27,000-per-year pension because his addiction to gambling has left him officially disabled. The San Jose, California, Police and Fire Retirement Board voted 3-2 on Thursday evening to offer a disability pension to former city policeman Johnny Venzon, Jr., who is currently in the Santa Clara County Jail charged with a string of thefts allegedly undertaken to support his gambling habit.

I'm sure we'll get a lot of flak, board member Bill Brill told Friday's San Jose Mercury News. Johnny's no shining star. Obviously, our concern was with his family, much less than with Johnny. Venzon has been accused of embezzling money from the police department, possessing stolen police uniforms, burglarizing homes and stealing from the relatives of the recently deceased, the Mercury News said.

He has been charged with 14 separate counts of burglary, one of grand theft, and one of receiving stolen property. His bail is set at $300,000. Medical experts have said that Venzon suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder centered on gambling, which they said represents a pathological problem standing in the way of his career with the police. City Attorney Joan Gallo, while admitting that Venzon's case was very unique, said the board had a legitimate rationale for its decision, noting that disability retirement benefits can be offered for psychiatric reasons that involve an element of drug or alcohol abuse.

The board granted his retirement because of his psychiatric disability not because he was a gambler, Gallo told the newspaper. (Reuter)