A retired St. Lawrence County attorney has settled with the state attorney general's office over pension abuse claims.

John D. Elmer has agreed to repay $42,000 after he improperly claimed work at three school districts and the village of Canton (1974-1980), the attorney general's office said. The school districts were Lisbon (1984-1992), Colton-Pierrepont (1978-1987) and St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services (1974-1998).

Mr. Elmer retired in January 1998 after 24 years of being included in the system and began receiving a small annual pension through the New York State Employees' Retirement Fund. The settlement calls for him to stop receiving future state-funded pension payments in addition to reimbursing past benefits.

The state listed Mr. Elmer as an independent contractor while working for the school districts and village, which made him ineligible to receive pension benefits.

"This is more evidence of the fraud in our pension system that has been ripping off New York taxpayers," state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said in a prepared statement. "Lawyers abusing the public benefits system are costing New Yorkers both tax dollars and public trust."

In recent months, the attorney general's office has been investigating the relationships between law firms and more than 4,000 local governments and special districts around the state, as well as with all 37 of the state's BOCES districts, for abuses of the state pension system.

The investigation involves the classification of lawyers as either employees, a status under which they would be eligible for state pension benefits, or as independent contractors, who are not entitled to benefits. Investigators also are looking for school districts and BOCES districts that may have improperly classified attorneys and other employees in order to increase their payrolls and collect more state aid.