Daily News from New York, New York • 449

'j' Lawyer pays not a cent for palatial East Side digs By GREG B. SMITH I Daily News Staff Writer For the last year, has lived a New Yorker's his home in an opulent, mansion without paying a attorney Ivan Fisher real estate dream making five-story upper East Side dime in rent For the last year, hleh-Drofile Manhattan ft i I mi J- t' I attorney Ivan Fisher has been living In the lap of luxury rent free. It has carved oak doors A white marble foyer Three kitchens Three bedrooms A library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases A steam room 19th-century chandeliers I crass sconces anu a wraie marble central staircase. r- i Ivan Fisher DAILY NEWS Roth insists his job not his 40-year, pack-a-day habit caused a 1993 heart attack. He quit smoking two years ago.

"There is no direct evidence that smoking causes heart attacks," he said. "Everybody else in the Police Department can smoke and eat pork chops." Although police doctors don't fight crime, they are considered members of the Police Department and are eligible to file for work-related disability pensions. Roth's claim rejected twice before by a panel of doctors was finally ap if. And the landlord who is los ing out on the rent money: the taxpayers. Because of a dispute with the U.S.

government which owns the building, Fisher has lived rent-free in an E. 69th St manse that used to be an official Iranian residence. It was seized by the feds when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1980. The house resembles a small castle.

It has carved oak doors, a white marble foyer, three kitchens, three bedrooms, a library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, a steam room, 19th-century chandeliers, brass sconces and a white marble central staircase. And location. It sits in the heart of the upper East Side, a few feet from the designer boutiques of Madison Ave. on a street lined with foreign missions. "I love it," Fisher said.

"I pray to God I can stay." But all good things could come to an end. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office went to court last week to evict Fisher, saying he owes a year's worth of rent for his uptown palace $180,000. Fisher said he offered to pay the $15,000 per month even $20,000. But the feds insisted on duk-ing it out in court, so he sits back and lets justice take its peculiar course.

"It's erratic," he said of the federal government. "They tell me to get back to them immediately, then it takes them months to get back to me." The State Department began renting the building to Jeffrey Epstein, a Palm Beach, proved by the NYPD pension board Dec. 10. Representatives for the mayor, the city finance commissioner and Safir voted against it "I think the decision is reprehensible, but it also follows the law," Safir said. "Doctors are not on the street enforcing the law and not subject to the stresses and strains that police officers are." A spokesman for City Controller Alan Hevesi who grudgingly voted to approve the request said the law should be changed.

"If we voted 'no' we would be wasting the city's money financial adviser, in 1992 for $15,000 per month. By January 1996, Epstein had moved out He eventually decided to rent to Fisher, a lawyer who has represented clients in the Pizza Connection and French Connection heroin trials. Fisher said Epstein assured him the State Department had signed off on the deal. In May 1996, Fisher began paying Epstein $20,000 a month a tidy profit for Epstein that the government didn't know about Fisher moved his family into the upper floors and his law firm into the lower floors. Unfortunately, the State Department insisted Epstein love it.

I pray to God I can stay." IVAN FISHER hadn't gotten permission to sublet, and besides, it was furious about the profit he was pocketing. When Fisher realized the State Department no longer considered Epstein the lessee, he stopped paying Epstein rent He said he offered to pay the feds directly, but they declined. In November 1996, the feds sued Epstein and Fisher. Last week, Manhattan Federal Judge Denny Chin gave the men 45 days to deposit back rent in an escrow account and promised to resolve the question of eviction quickly. Fisher, meanwhile, said he has sunk hundreds of thousands into renovations and hopes he'll be allowed to stay even if he has to pay.

"I'm the perfect tenant," he said. oBeaD on lawyers in a case we would have lost" said Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt "We're definitely in favor of changing the law so it only covers police officers and firefighters." As one of 23 police doctors also known as district surgeons Roth was responsible for examining injured cops to determine if they are fit to return to full duty. The doctors work part-time for the NYPD while maintaining private practices. Roth said at least five other police doctors have received similar tax-free disability pensions. I 'WJ'W-, 1 if 1 r-r 3 L.V-" i I 1 II i 'HOT dto dirarcis SOO-a-yoair-iFdDir-lniF lice Department since 1978 but now is on sick leave said he believes he deserves the financial cushion.

"I've been stressed a lot in the NYPD," he said yesterday. "I've had to do night duty, I've been awakened from sleep to go on a calL And there's the stresses of answering cops' complaints." Roth stands to collect the cash for the rest of his life, thanks to the so-called heart bill, a law that mandates that cops and firefighters suffering from heart disease are presumed to have developed the condition on the job. By JOHN MARZULXJ Daily News Staff Writer An NYPD doctor who admittedly smoked a pack of cigarets a day for 40 years has been awarded a lucrative tax-free pension because of a heart condition, the Daily News has learned. The nearly pension awarded to Dr. Harold Roth drew howls of outrage from Police Commissioner Howard Safir and other officials, who said the law allowing it to be awarded should be changed.

But Roth who has worked part-time for the Po CO a a 3 -J I.