votes, at first count. The narrow margin forced an automatic recount. After a recount completed on Saturday, November 12, 2011, Maturo won the mayor's seat with 34 votes. When Maturo was re-elected to mayor in November 2011, at an annual salary of $75,000, the Connecticut Municipal Employee Retirement System (CMERS) cut off his disability pension, estimated at more than $40,000 annually, as Maturo was employed full-time as mayor. In its notification, the state said the law prohibited payment of such a pension to someone working full-time for a municipality covered under the law. Through his attorney, Maturo applied in January 2012 to have the disability pension reinstated. His attorney said he had received the payments through his previous ten years as mayor, and argued that the mayor's job was not covered by disability provisions. Problems in police department In 1998 Maturo hired Leonard Gallo as Police Chief. They have been described as close friends. There were complaints by the Latino community of discrimination by police officers. In 2009, following the unwarranted arrest of a Catholic priest who was looking into charges that his Latino parishioners were victims of police discrimination, the United States Department of Justice initiated a civil and criminal investigation into conduct in the department. Based on DOJ's preliminary report received by the city in 2010, then Mayor Capone Almon (elected in November 2009) put Gallo on administrative leave until the investigations were completed. Authorities later said "Mr. Gallo interfered with the federal investigation, and threatened officers who cooperated with it." After his election to mayor in November 2011, Maturo was reportedly briefed about the federal investigation but returned Gallo to his post as police chief. On his first day back, Gallo barred police commission members from police headquarters and the parking lot; they were trying to investigate the conduct of Sgt. John Miller, about whom they had received complaints. Days later commission members established a policy requiring their entry to police headquarters. In December 2011, DOJ submitted its final scathing report of the civil investigation to the city, concluding that the department had a pattern of "systematically discriminating against Latinos." It described the discriminatory treatment as "deeply rooted in the department's culture." Based on a ten-count indictment, on January 24, 2012, four local policemen: Sgt. John Miller, Dennis Spaulding, Jason Zullo, and David Cari were arrested by the FBI, indicted on 10 counts under DOJ's criminal investigation