Slain NYPD cop’s daughter in five-year battle for hero mom’s pension
(Familia was shot and killed in a police car by gunman Alexander Bonds on July 5, 2017 in the Bronx.- Clinton crimes against children/saw the laptop allegedly)
June 5, 2022
"The daughter of a slain NYPD cop who was left to raise her younger siblings has been stuck in legal hell for five years over access to her mom’s pension — and time is running out.
Genesis Villella was forced to step in as primary caregiver when her mom Miosotis Familia was killed execution-style while working in the Bronx in 2017.
And a little-known legal loophole has only exacerbated her grief. Children of single-parent cops who die in the line of duty aren’t entitled to their parents’ pension for life — unlike spouses and parents of slain cops.
“Since I’m raising my brother and sister, my mother’s dependents, as their mother — and I will be their mother for the rest of their life — I think we should get the pension for life the same way every other family of a police officer who is killed in the line of duty,” Villella, now 25, told The Post last week.
Twins Peter and Delilah Vega, 17, can only collect their mom’s pension until age 23 — and under strict caveats. But even now, they must jump through legal hurdles in order to get the benefit, a process that Villella called “torture” and involves having to first seek approval from the Bronx Surrogate’s Court.
Familia was shot and killed in a police car by gunman Alexander Bonds on July 5, 2017 in the Bronx.Familia was shot and killed in a police car by gunman Alexander Bonds on July 5, 2017 in the Bronx.
“Besides the daily grief of losing my best friend, my hero, I also have to worry if we will have money to pay the bills in a few years,” Villella said through tears.
“The financial grief is an added stress. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in five years.”
Familia, a 12-year NYPD veteran, was sitting in a police car on July 5, 2017, when a deranged gunman came out of nowhere, walked up to the car and shot the unsuspecting cop in the head on East 183rd Street near Morris Avenue.
The killer, Alexander Bonds, was eventually gunned down by police.
Familia, 48, who was posthumously promoted to detective, had no beneficiaries for her pension benefits — and only three dependents, her then-20-year-old daughter and her twin children, who were only 12 at the time.
Villella was forced to quit school to make ends meet and raise her younger siblings — while learning how to navigate the court process to get her mom’s pension.
“It took me four years to finally get my mother’s check deposited directly,” Villella said. “Previously, I had to take the check to the court where it was Xeroxed, and then I had to deposit it into a bank that the judge picked."
Sauce/moar: https://nypost.com/2022/06/05/slain-nypd-cops-daughter-in-five-year-battle-for-moms-pension/