Virginia Beach officer's painful wait for workers' comp

VIRGINIA BEACH

Jason Lee had always dreamed of becoming a police officer.

His wife wasn't so sure. Why would you want to take a $15,000 pay cut to work long hours in a dangerous job?

She yielded, though, and in February 2003, Lee, a former Coast Guard petty officer first class, left his job as a network systems analyst at a tech company and joined the Virginia Beach Police Department. He excelled, and in 2007 he was named the city's Top Cop for his courageous response to a September 2006 shooting outside a nightclub.

Then the call came that Debbie Lee had been dreading, Her husband had been injured on the job.

On July 7, 2008, as he escorted a man in handcuffs down a flight of stairs, the man slipped. Lee grabbed his arm to keep him from falling and immediately felt a sharp pain in his back and groin.

Doctors eventually diagnosed a hernia in his groin and a ruptured disc in his spine. Three surgeries later, he's still in pain and has permanent nerve damage that makes his right foot go numb, causing him to fall.

The injuries eventually cost Lee his job and led to a lengthy battle with the city over workers' compensation benefits and medical expenses. During the dispute, he and his wife sold their home, drained their savings and relied on donations and generosity of family.

Their battle may have finally come to an end.

Ahead of a workers' compensation hearing scheduled for Tuesday, the city agreed last week to meet Lee's demands, said his attorney, Philip Geib. They've drafted an agreement to pay several months of withheld workers' compensation payments, reimburse him for all his medical expenses and cover all future costs related to his injury, he said.

The city will also start paying Lee the weekly workers' compensation stipend it has been withholding since he stopped working six months ago, Geib said. Before then, Lee had worked some light duty at the police department, but he had to stop because of his frequent falls, his pain level and his medications.

Lee estimates the city owes him about $24,000.

"I'm just happy the city did the right thing finally," he said. "It's a little late, but it's better to do the right thing now then never."

The Lees are still left with one question: Why did they have to fight so hard for so long?

For a while, Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc., the private company that manages the city's injury claims, denied Jason Lee's benefits, questioning "if his alleged groin injury and/or hernia is related to his 7/7/08 incident," according to a workers' compensation denial form from the company dated April 2, 2009.

City officials declined to comment on Lee's case, citing privacy issues. Workers' compensation cases are complicated, said city Finance Director Patricia Phillips, who oversees the risk management department.

"We never try to purposely create a hardship on our employees," she said. "They work hard and they deserve our attention; however, every once in a while, you will have situations."

The city receives about 1,100 injury claims each year, said John Grook, the city's risk management administrator. Sedgwick manages the claims, but the city pays the bill, which totaled roughly $6.7 million last fiscal year, he said.

The city typically does a good job caring for injured police officers, said Officer Lucian Colley, president of the Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association, a law enforcement union. He's had two back and knee surgeries, and the city covered everything, he said.

"The city has always taken good care of me," he said. "I'm very surprised what this young officer has gone through and there's no excuse for it."

Colley said he plans to conduct a survey to see whether other officers have had problems like Lee's.

 The past two years have taken a toll on Jason Lee, Debbie Lee and their two children - Katelyn, 11, and Thomas, 5.

With three major surgeries, about a dozen CT scans and MRIs and prescriptions for painkillers and other medications, the bills added up fast. Jason Lee had been the family's sole breadwinner because his wife is disabled from a shattered pelvis she suffered in childbirth.

They've scraped by, cutting out all the extras, like Thomas' soccer and Katelyn's school yearbook, and their school photos.

Because of his spinal injury, Jason Lee's right foot and leg often go numb, causing him to fall. Once he went to retrieve the mail and returned with bloody gashes on his knee, arm and forehead. Another time he fell on the stairs when his wife and children were outside playing. His foot got stuck and he shouted for help to get free, but they couldn't hear him outside. He ended up lying there until they returned.

"Now when we hear a thud upstairs, the kids run," Debbie Lee said.

They're hoping life will get a little easier now that payment is forthcoming. Jason Lee recently had a nerve severed in his spine to stop his back pain. He had a second procedure Friday. He'll still fall sometimes, but he shouldn't be in as much pain.

He's being administratively dismissed from the Police Department, where he'd risen to the rank of detective. He's bitter about the dispute.

"I'd sacrificed my family and everything for the Police Department or for the city, and when this happens, they just turn their back on me," he said.

Thomas says he wants to be a police officer when he grows up. That's OK with Jason and Debbie Lee, but they warn him about the risks.

"We don't discourage him," Debbie Lee said. "But we tell him."

Pilot researcher Maureen Watts contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com