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Retired Springfield officer seeks disability pension after hammer assault during pandemic-era call
Summary
Retired Springfield police officer Misael Rodriguez and his representatives asked the committee to approve House Bill 2,939 to provide a disability pension following a 2020 on-duty hammer assault that caused skull fracture and brain bleed; advocates said the bill was previously engrossed but lapsed at session end.
Retired Springfield police officer Misael Rodriguez asked the Joint Committee on Public Service to advance House Bill 2,939 to secure a disability pension after a 2020 on‑duty assault in which he sustained a skull fracture and brain bleed.
Legislative agent Joseph Gentile described the November 5, 2020 incident: officers responding to a mental‑health crisis call confronted a barricaded male who emerged swinging a hammer and struck Officer Rodriguez in the head, leaving him unconscious and later diagnosed with a skull fracture and intracranial bleeding. Rodriguez recounted waking up days later in an intensive‑care unit and undergoing years of physical, occupational and speech therapy before retiring.
Gentile said the bill follows a change in law (legislation in 2021) that provided benefits for other violent‑crime injury cases; local leaders in Springfield supported the petition and the bill was reported favorably and engrossed by both branches in the prior session but was not finalized because the session ended. He asked the committee to report the bill favorably this session so Rodriguez can receive the benefits intended by those prior changes.
Committee members did not take a recorded vote during the hearing; written support from the city and mayor’s office was submitted.
