The daughter of a slain NYPD cop has been fighting the legal system for the past five years to access her mother’s pension.
Genesis Villella, 25, stepped in as primary caregiver for her two younger siblings after her mother, Miosotis Familia, was killed execution-style while working in 2017 in the Bronx, the New York Post reported.
New York City’s laws and regulations regarding police officers who were killed in the line of duty are different for those who are not married. For example, children of single-parent cops are not entitled to their parent’s pension, unlike officers who have a spouse or parents that can legally collect those funds.
However, there is only one way the surviving child(ren) can receive their parent’s pension. If one or more children are 18 years old or under, registered as a full-time student, and haven’t reached the age of 23, are eligible to receive the benefits, according to the police pension fund’s website.
Familia, a 12-year-NYPD veteran, was sitting in a police car on July 5, 2017, when a crazed gunman walked up to the car and shot the officer in the head.
The killer, identified as Alexander Bonds, was eventually killed by police.
Familia, 48, who was promoted to a detective shortly after her death, had no beneficiaries for her pension benefits — just her eldest daughter and the twins, who were 12 at the time.
Villella was a 20-year-old full-time student when her mother was killed. She was forced to drop out of school to care for her siblings, Peter and Delilah Vega, now 17 years old.
“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, told the outlet.
While the twins can only access their mother’s pension until age 23, receiving the benefits requires paperwork submitted to the Bronx Surrogate’s Court for approval.
“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.”
The 25-year-old recalled how difficult it was to deposit her mother’s check after going through a legal process to receive the money.
“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.
She added, “Originally, the bank opened up a [certificate of deposit] instead of a savings account.”
“The bank had to correct the mistake. Also, every time, I had to go to the court where,” Villella continued. “My mother worked as a cop, and also two miles from where she was heinously executed.”
In 2020, Villella was cut off from the pension when she turned 23. And now, Peter and Delilah have just five years until they’re cut off.
“When our single officers give their life in the line of duty, the least we can do as a city is make sure their children are taken care of in a way they are accustomed to, if not better,” Kathy Vigiano, president of the nonprofit Survivors of the Shield, told The Post.
The organization was founded in 1988 to provide families financial relief to family members of slain NYPD cops.
“There shouldn’t be a cutoff at age 23,” Vigiano said. “These kids are broken. It may take a few more years to finish college or a trade school. We should make life easier for these children, not harder.”
“A parent is there to help support their child in every step in their life, right into adulthood. These children have lost that.”
While several lawmakers tried to initiate bills to help Villella and her family, they never received support to move forward.
Villella criticized the city for not stepping up after her mother’s death.
“Besides being a loving mother, she was also a loyal, faithful civil servant who gave her life protecting the city,” she said of her mom. “The city should, in turn, take care of her children.”
