Severely injured Massachusetts police officers say lawmakers won't fight for their benefits

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]After spending my career, half my life caring for others and helping others, I now need help and nobody's willing to listen.

[00:00:07]>> Louisa from Channel 4 WBZ. I'm desperately trying to get in touch with the chairman.

[00:00:12]>> I lean in like this.

[00:00:14]>> That's when an 87,000 lb truck careened into the back of trooper Jamie McGarry's cruiser in 2018.

[00:00:21]>> The rest of my body kind of stretched up here and hanging out of the car.

[00:00:24]>> The accident took just seconds. his leg nearly amputated and his brain rattled.

[00:00:29]>> I couldn't drive a car. I couldn't be left alone.

[00:00:32]>> Five months later, he was medically discharged from the Massachusetts State Police.

[00:00:36]>> The Commonwealth canled all my medical appointments because I then learned they're discharging me because they no longer have to take care of me.

[00:00:43]>> One day, my daughter had to uh help me tie my shoes and I couldn't I couldn't read.

[00:00:49]>> Vinnie Fernandez tells a strikingly similar story. This video shown in court shows the former Lowel patrol sergeant being struck by a fleeing felon in a car in 2016.

[00:00:59]>> The windshield wiper broke. It flung me from the car.

[00:01:01]>> He suffered seven surgeries to his spine, but it's the cognitive issues that nearly broke him.

[00:01:07]>> The room would be spinning and it would be dark and and and my head hurt so bad.

[00:01:11]I remember Amy told me I, you know, asked me to keep going and and it was just so bad that I I needed it to stop.

[00:01:17]Both men were retired with 72% of their pay, but a law passed in 2024 allowing officers who suffer a catastrophic, life-threatening, or lifealtering and permanent bodily injury to receive 100% pension until retirement age.

[00:01:33]>> Survival isn't the end of the story. For many, it's where the hardest part begins.

[00:01:37]>> Jaime and Vinnie's cases happened before the law was passed and outside its two-year time frame. But there's another way to get 100%. Each officer can work the phones and get special individual legislation first approved by their municipality and then the legislature.

[00:01:54]But here's the problem. They're being told either trust the process or no one is calling them back at all.

[00:02:00]>> It gets to the Ways and Means Committee and it dies there. And it dies every year.

[00:02:04]>> We incurred tens of thousands of dollars in personal cost. I have five officers who have had their home rule petitions approved, like I just said, by the municipalities and they've been waiting two years for a simple signoff from the state.

[00:02:18]>> Vinnie still needs approval from the city of Lel. The city manager telling me they're working toward a final resolution. I went to the state house looking for the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and sent multiple emails to every legislator representing Jaime and Vinnie. State Senator Jake Olivera wrote us, "Legislation that would address these cases is currently pending before the Massachusetts House of Representatives. I support this legislation and I'm a co-sponsor of the bill. These officers told me the silence is deafening.