COLUMBUS, Ohio—A disabled police officer who sold illicit drugs engaged in “sustained remunerative employment” and therefore must return workers compensation benefits he received while dealing OxyContin, Ohio's Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The former Parma, Ohio, officer received workers comp benefits for a permanent total disability beginning in 2004.

At that time, however, Donald McNea's own police department was secretly investigating him for the suspected sale of prescription drugs, according to the Supreme Court's opinion in State ex rel. McNea vs. Indus. Comm.

Parma police received a tip in 2003 that Mr. McNea was selling prescription medications, and over the next two years numerous conversations occurred between him and confidential informants.

During those conversations, Mr. McNea indicated he could obtain OxyContin or similar drugs for the informants. During 2005, Mr. McNea also made four recorded sales to informants, netting $6,200, the opinion states.

He was arrested in December 2005 and pleaded guilty to four felony charges. In 2007, Mr. McNea received a three-year prison sentence.

Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation then moved to terminate further PTD benefits for Mr. McNea and have his past benefits declared overpaid as of 2004, when the payments began.

A commission hearing officer terminated benefits as of 2007 when Mr. McNea was incarcerated. The hearing officer, however, declined to declare the earlier benefits to be overpaid because of a lack of proof that Mr. McNea was involved in sustained remunerative employment when granted the benefits.

But on appeal, Ohio's Industrial Commission declared that all compensation paid after Mr. McNea's first confirmed drug sale in 2005 constituted an overpayment because his selling of prescription narcotics over several months constituted sustained remunerative employment sufficient to require the termination of his disability benefits.

The commission relied on the fact that the amount of money involved in the four sales to undercover agents would total $24,000 annually, “which clearly would amount to sustained remunerative employment.”

The commission also found that, had Mr. McNea not been arrested, he most likely would have continued his drug-selling activity.

Mr. McNea appealed, but to the Court of Appeals for Franklin County, Ohio, found that the commission had not abused its discretion and denied the appeal.

So Mr. McNea appealed to Ohio’s high court.

But the Supreme Court’s opinion noted that “in this case, the evidence established an ongoing pattern of phone calls and other sales-related activity that culminated in the four recorded sales.”

Therefore, the court said, “the commission characterized this sales activity as sustained remunerative employment, and we decline to disturb that finding. The commission also extrapolated from its finding that McNea continued to possess the medical ability to engage in such activity even after his arrest. This conclusion is also sustained.”

The high court then affirmed the appeals court’s finding.