One Year Later, Sgt. Ross's Widow Waits for Help

For most people, Memorial Park in Clayton is a place of quiet contemplation.

Nestled on the grounds of the St. Louis County Government Center, and in front of the police headquarters building, the 2.7-acre park includes an outdoor plaza, walkway and a fountain with bigger-than-life bronze statues that honor fallen police officers and firefighters.

Its black granite fountain, somber in appearance, reads like an epitaph too. “Honor, Duty, Courage–Rest In Peace, Comrades, We Will Not Forget You” is etched on its facade.

For Margie Ross, widow of of the , Memorial Park evokes conflicting emotions. 

She finds comfort in the words on the fountain and takes pride in the small plaque at the memorial that bears her husband’s name in the third row, 10th line, of a stone tablet inscribed “In the Line of Duty.”

But Margie Ross is also confounded by its irony. That’s because the City of Maplewood and its insurer, the St. Louis Area Insurance Trust, denied a liability claim connected with her husband’s death because it was not deemed to have happened “in the line of duty.” Consequently, Margie and her 16-year-old daughter, Mollie, have been refused workman’s compensation.

Sgt. Ross, a 33-year veteran of the Maplewood police, died last year from complications of a heart attack he sustained while attending a department-sanctioned event. Incredibly, it was the funeral for a fallen city of St. Louis police officer.

“He (Ross) had a heart attack while driving a police cruiser. That is not considered a compensible injury under workman’s compensation law in the state of Missouri,” said Marty Corcoran, city manager of Maplewood.

“His widow could have appealed and did not appeal,” Corcoran said. “The result would have been the same. The only thing we do is to submit the injury report to the insurance carrier. They don’t ask us our opinion.”

Even so, members of the department applied for other forms of federal assistance for Margie Ross and her daughter. They are awaiting a decision from two U.S. Justice Department-administered programs and hope to hear about one of them this week.

Adding insult to injury

Because workman’s compensation was denied, The BackStoppers Inc. has been unable, so far, to help Margie and Mollie Ross. BackStoppers is the St. Louis-area charity that provides support to spouses and children of local public safety officers who have lost their lives or become catastrophically injured in the line of duty.

All of this leaves 46-year-old Margie Ross frustrated, angry and scared about mounting bills and financial insecurity. She lost her job a few weeks after Sgt. Ross’s death; her employer relocated. She has since returned to school. Most of her husband’s $10,000 life insurance from Maplewood is gone; his funeral alone cost $8,000.

“Where is the help?” she wondered out loud from her small ranch house in Affton. “There are bills, a car payment and a mortgage.”

She does, however, receive a $1,200 a month pension.

At the crux of Margie Ross’s despair is the definition of a “line of duty” death.

St. Louis County Police Department, for example, has not created a definition for it. They refer to the regulations of a federal benefits program, said Rick Eckhard, the department’s spokesman.

But the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has a loose definition.

“Generally speaking, the death of a police officer is a line of duty death if the officer dies as a result of injuries sustained while in the performance of a police action,” said Erica Van Ross, director of public information for St. Louis police.

“In the line of duty” vs. “on duty”

But there appears to be some latitude in the interpretation of “in the line of duty.”

Take the case of city of St. Louis police officer Stephen R. Jerabek, 60, who collapsed and suffered a fatal heart attack in February 2007 after completing the department’s annual fitness exam. He was with the department for 30 years. BackStoppers provided his family with assistance.

Then there is the case of Affton Fire Chief Jerry Buehne, 64, who was killed in a 2005 head-on collision while driving to a work-related meeting. The accident was caused by a shoplifter fleeing the original crime scene while driving his car nearly 100 mph. Buehne was killed on impact. His family also received financial aid from BackStoppers.

As time passed and concern about her future financial viability increased, Margie Ross began making telephone inquiries, sending emails and keeping copies of those responses regarding any assistance.

In an email to Margie Ross dated Dec. 9, 2010, Jacki Bettale, office manager of BackStoppers wrote: “As you know, we provide assistance in the event of a line of duty death. We do not make that determination; it is made by the department that employed the individual killed in the line of duty.”

That prompted Margie Ross to email Maplewood Police Chief Steve Kruse the same day.

On Dec. 10, Kruse replied to Margie Ross by email: “As you are aware, the Worker’s Compensation claim was subsequently denied after it was concluded that George’s death did not arise out of or occur in the course of his employment as defined by law.” Kruse copied Corcoran on the memo, and defers all questions about Sgt. Ross’s work status to him.

“I don’t make those decisions,” Kruse said, when asked about the workman’s compensation claim. “If you’re asking me if a heart attack can be caused by the realities of police business—absolutely.”

At issue are not obvious line of duty deaths, but a gray area that includes a heart attack on the job, fatal accident to or from work, or returning from a work-related event.

Ross' heart attack

March 30, 2010, started as a routine day for Sgt. Ross.

He clocked in at 5 a.m., completed some office work and washed his police cruiser two hours later at the U Gas on South Hanley Road. He was to attend the funeral of St. Louis police officer David Haynes, who was killed on duty in a traffic accident.

“George always did fallen officer funerals,” said Margie Ross. Sgt. Ross was on department time, in uniform and driving a Maplewood police cruiser on Interstate 55 near Union Road when the 62 year old was stricken with a heart attack.

Ross had no known history of heart disease. Kruse described him as fit. He quit smoking 15 years ago, had not been ill and “never took off work,” Kruse said.

As people departed the funeral at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, observers watched as the Maplewood police cruiser slowed, crossed lanes on I-55, drove over an embankment and through a chain-link fence. The car rolled to a slow stop in the near-empty parking lot of a banquet center, bumper-to-bumper with a parked sport utility vehicle.

Margie Ross believes that this was her husband’s last conscious act: to drive his car safely off the highway and prevent an accident. A trucker navigating an 18-wheeler was also on the road near the cruiser and watched as it veered off the highway.

Ross was hospitalized and treated, but nine days later, the Vietnam Navy vet and 32nd-degree Mason died after being removed from life support.

Grief, best of intentions and tension

While Margie Ross lost her soul mate and husband of 16 years, and Mollie, her father, the Maplewood Police Department also lost a colleague and friend.

“George was like a father to me,” said Sgt. Mike Martin, who spoke at his funeral and was later instructed by Kruse to research and request benefits for Margie and Mollie Ross.

“We applied for a couple of forms of federal aid,” Kruse said, bristling at the suggestion that Ross felt abandoned by the police and the city.

In fact, the department has applied for assistance from the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program (PSOB) and Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act, and has documented its efforts and other related correspondence in a white vinyl folder.

The PSOB provides a one-time financial benefit to the eligible survivors of public safety officers whose deaths are the direct and proximate result of a traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty. It is the larger of the two awards, and if granted, would enable Margie to receive financial assistance from BackStoppers, too. The amount of that support would be determined by the BackStoppers board.

Martin estimated the PSOB benefit could be as much as $300,000. Hometown Heroes could be about $25,000. A response from the PSOB is expected this week, Martin said.

He said the application process has been frustrating. He said he has put in 70 to 75 hours, often working with Margie Ross to track down paperwork for her husband, who was married four times and had nine children. He often needed to resend paperwork that was lost as federal case workers changed during the process.

“We hope the decision will be favorable,” said Chief Ron Batelle, executive director of BackStoppers. And if it is, “we are ready, willing and able to help Margie.”