Adding to the swirl of news about a secret retirement payment to Philip Tirabassi is the assertion by his attorney that Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski thwarted an original retirement agreement that would later lead to a confidential $83,675 cash settlement.

In a statement to The Brew today following the first of two stories about the settlement (part 2 will be posted tomorrow), attorney Jay D. Miller called it a “false assertion that the settlement I obtained on behalf of a dedicated 30-year firefighter, Philip Tirabassi, was obtained by virtue of the fact that the county executive is a friend of my client’s brother.”

• EXCLUSIVE: Firefighter who got secret cash payment handled personal real estate for Baltimore County Executive Olszewski (7/30/24)

• Olszewski administration seeks $200,000 more in battle over public information records (7/1/24)

In fact, says Miller, the county “defended the case zealously and, in my opinion, only came to the settlement table after a hearing in which we proved that Mr. Tirabassi was never adequately informed that he had the opportunity to transfer his two and a half years of service with Baltimore City to his county retirement plan.”

“The fact is,” Miller continued “that the county executive actually sought to renege on the settlement agreement by claiming that the county attorney had acted beyond the scope of his authority in negotiating the settlement.

“This stance forced Mr. Tirabassi to engage in further litigation to enforce the valid settlement agreement. Any suggestion that the county executive acted for Mr. Tirabassi’s benefit to the detriment of the county is belied by the facts of what actually transpired,” Miller, a medical malpractice attorney at Peter Angelos Law, asserted.

As a result, he concluded, “Mr. Tirabassi was forced to spent a tremendous amount of money to fight to get what he had rightfully earned.”