Kelly To Lobby for Auxiliary Officers' Benefits

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly will provide testimony tomorrow to the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the families of two auxiliary police officers killed in Greenwich Village who have been denied hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal benefits.

The Justice Department has concluded that the families of Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo, who were shot to death while pursuing an armed suspect along Sullivan Street in March 2007, do not qualify for $300,000 each in federal benefits because the men were auxiliary police officers, Mr. Kelly said.

"They were killed in the line of duty and were laid to rest with full honors befitting their heroism," Mr. Kelly said. "It only makes sense that the Department of Justice follow suit and recognize Eugene and Nicholas as public safety officers within the meaning of the law. This was a wrongheaded decision. It needs to be reversed."

Senator Schumer joined Mr. Kelly yesterday at One Police Plaza and said he supported overturning the decision. Mr. Schumer, who sponsored legislation in the Senate that would provide the families with the benefits, the Public Safety Officers' Benefit program, said the program is meant to assist financially not only the families of officers but also those of volunteers killed in the line of duty.

The Justice Department based its decision on the two officers' lack of authority to make arrests, Mr. Kelly said, adding that the department failed to acknowledge that the two auxiliary officers had the power to apprehend and detain suspects.

An official in the department sought to deny the families of the two officers their benefits as a cost-cutting measure when the decision was handed down in December, Mr. Schumer, a Democrat, said.

The Department of Justice released a statement yesterday saying, "While we believe any death in the line of duty is tragic, we must operate under the strict guidelines of federal statute when determining the eligibility for benefits under the Public Safety Officers Benefits program. Under the PSOB Act, benefits are authorized to be paid for line of duty deaths of individuals who qualify as 'public safety officers' as specifically defined by the statute. An individual qualifies as a 'law enforcement officer' under the PSOB Act, 'only if he is an officer of a public agency and, in that capacity, has legal authority and responsibility to arrest, apprehend, prosecute, adjudicate, correct or detain, or supervise persons who are alleged or found to have violated the criminal laws, and is recognized by such agency to have such authority and responsibility.'"