Comp claimant prison guard bounces onto new side gig

One might say he’s another sort of bouncer: from prison guard to workers compensation recipient to night club security to possible inmate.

A New York prison guard who was out on an alleged workers compensation injury was arrested on felony fraud charges after he was caught working as a bouncer at a night club, the Times Union reported Thursday.

An investigation by the state’s inspector general found that Benjamin Essenter, a corrections officer at Coxsackie Correctional Facility in New York who reported being injured in 2016, was working at Footsy Magoo’s where he was “paid off the books,” the newspaper reported.

He had not been back to work as a prison guard at the time of his arrest.

He is facing charges of grand larceny, insurance fraud and fraudulent practices — all felonies, the newspaper reported.