Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Line Of Duty Covid Benefits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Widow of Rutland detective seeks state line-of-duty benefits for COVID-linked death
Summary
At a May 7 Joint Committee on Public Service hearing, Joanne Sonji asked lawmakers to pass S.1831 to recognize her husband, Detective John Sonji, as having died in the line of duty after contracting COVID-19 in 2020; legal appeals over retirement-board denials are ongoing.
Joanne Sonji asked the Joint Committee on Public Service on May 7 to pass S.1831, legislation to provide state line-of-duty death benefits after her husband, Rutland Police Detective John Sonji, died following a 36-day battle with COVID-19 in 2020.
Sonji told the committee she has been financially responsible for household obligations since her husband’s death and that two prior bills filed on her behalf stalled in the Legislature. "Receiving the state line of duty death benefits will not bring my husband back nor will it end my grief. Rather, it will hopefully provide some relief and closure to the pain and suffering that I have endured over the last 5 years," she said.
The case has proceeded through administrative appeals. Attorney Lisonbee Gurley told the committee that Sonji won a magistrate ruling but that both the State Retirement Board and the Worcester Regional Retirement Board have appealed and the matter may move to the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board and then to superior court. Gurley said the retirement boards have argued the statutes as written limit their authority and urged the committee to approve remedial legislation. "We must eliminate the instances in which families are asked to prove what is unprovable," Gurley said, quoting Sen. Cory Booker in defense of a legislative presumption for first responders.
Rutland Police Chief Nicholas Monaco described Sonji as an essential, on‑duty officer during the pandemic and said the town of Rutland unanimously designated his death a line-of-duty death. Monaco noted that the federal government and the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial recognize Sonji as a line-of-duty death and that his name is carved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. He said the special legislation before the committee offers the Commonwealth an opportunity to extend benefits the boards say they cannot award under current statute.
Witnesses asked the committee to advance S.1831 so Sonji’s widow can receive benefits without protracted litigation. Committee chairs reminded attendees that written testimony for the hearing is due by May 17 at 5 p.m. and that matters on the hearing notice must be reported to the House by July 7.
