Social Security Judge Accused Of Disability Scheme

WASHINGTON (AP) – Congressional investigators are accusing a retired Social Security judge in West Virginia of scheming with a lawyer to improperly award disability benefits to hundreds of applicants.

A new report by the staff of a Senate committee says retired judge David B. Daugherty approved claims in, quote, "assembly-line fashion," using manufactured medical evidence.

The report accuses Daugherty of plotting with lawyer Eric C. Conn to approve more than 1,800 cases from 2006 to 2010.

Conn runs a law firm specializing in disability cases. The report says Daugherty, who was a judge in Huntington, W. Va., retired in 2011 after questions were raised about his relationship with Conn.

Daugherty and Conn were scheduled to testify Monday at a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which produced the report.