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Ray Kelly favors auxiliary cop death benefits

BY ANDREW STRICKLER | andrew.strickler@newsday.com

7:34 PM EDT, March 26, 2008

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Top city police brass and the loved ones of two auxiliary cops killed last year in a confrontation with a deranged shooter testified Wednesday in an attempt to overturn a federal decision to deny their families death benefits.

Speaking at NYPD headquarters after the presentation to a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called the denial of financial support to the families of Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo a "hyper-technical" legal interpretation.

Kelly said "their selfless acts, which I believe prevented many deaths, are precisely the type of conduct that the is intended to compensate."

Kelly and others have argued that the auxiliary officers were acting as regular officers when they were killed and deserve full benefits.

Marshalik, 19, and Pekearo, 28, partners in the department's 4,500-member auxiliary force, were killed March 14, 2007, after David Garvin walked into a Greenwich Village pizzeria and fatally shot a bartender. The pair briefly gave chase before Garvin turned on them and gunned down both unarmed men. Garvin was then killed by responding officers.

In September, the DOJ denied the victims' families compensation of up to $300,000 normally paid to the families of fallen officers because they were not deemed to be full-fledged peace officers under the 2003 Hometown Heroes Survivors Act. The decision raised the ire of police officials and Sen. Charles Schumer, who has called the decision immoral and unethical.

As part of the appeal of that ruling, Kelly yesterday read a prepared statement and gave the DOJ representative a surveillance camera video showing the shooting. He also provided a recording of a 911 call made during the attack. Marshalik's father, Boris Marshalik, a pediatrician who lives in Valley Stream, and Pekearo's mother, Iola Latman, also spoke during the hearing. Kelly said the families gave "moving testimony.

"They see it not as a matter of money, but as a matter of dignity," Kelly said.

Auxiliary cops wear similar uniforms to regular officers and carry batons, flashlights, handcuffs and radios. But the volunteer force does not carry guns or have regular officers' authority to make arrests.

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