State denied death benefits to family of Rutland detective who died from COVID-19

RUTLAND, Mass. — A Leicester woman says the state of Massachusetts is refusing to honor her late husband’s sacrifice by denying his family benefits in his death.

Detective John Songy was a police officer who contracted COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic and died weeks later, in May 2020. Local and state retirement boards have denied his line of duty death benefits saying they can’t prove he caught the virus on the job, according to denials letters obtained by Boston 25 News.

Yet his name is etched into two memorials dedicated to officers who died in the line of duty.

“My best friend. he was the love of my life,” said Joanne Songy speaking of her late husband John. “He was my everything.”

Joanne Songy says she still mourning the sudden loss of her husband, John. Four years later, she didn’t expect to still be fighting for the benefits she feels her husband earned.

“He had to go to work every day to serve and protect the community. That did not stop for any police officer,” she said.

Detective John Songy was a police officer for 14 years, most recently at the Rutland Police Department.

In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 gripped the country, Detective Songy was still going to work, considered an essential employee, as all first responders were.

Joanne says they both tested positive that April. Fatigue and body aches and a cough consumed them. Eventually, John’s symptoms got worse. He was struggling to breathe.

“He wanted to get out of bed and take a shower,” Songy said. “He was in there longer than usual. When I opened the door…he was on his hands and knees in the shower and looked up and said, ‘I can’t breathe, you need to call 911.’ He never came back home.”

Boston 25 News was there for the show of support as Detective Songy fought for his life. He would not overcome the virus.

Detective Songy’s name is etched into two memorials dedicated to officers who died in the line of duty, outside the Massachusetts Statehouse and the one in Washington D.C.

Songy received federal benefits for surviving family members right away. But the Massachusetts and Worcester Regional retirement boards have denied her ‘line of duty death’ benefits claims, a one-time payout of $300,000 saying she could not prove her husband’s duties were the “...direct and proximate cause of his death...”

And COVID-19 isn’t listed as a means of death for an officer in Massachusetts.

So, Joanne Songy set out to change that, to change state laws. Two legislative sessions and four years later she’s still fighting.

“As a widow, how do you feel this? No widow should have to fight for four years. His death was declared a line of duty death,” Songy said.

“Our legislators just need to get to work and pass this bill that COVID-19 was a deadly virus that took several lives, not just John Songy’s,” said Mario Oliveira is president of New England COPS, or Concerns of Police Survivors.

Oliveira’s been working with Songy to update state laws around survivor benefits.

Songy appealed the local and state denials. The state board told Boston 25 News it cannot comment on cases with pending appeals. Generally, the state board will cast votes in accordance with how the benefits law is written.

“It’s not gonna break the bank for the state. it’s doing the right thing for these families,” Oliveira said.

Families like Joanne Songy, who says the benefits honor her husband’s sacrifice.

“He sacrificed his life; he went out and worked every day without hesitation,” Songy said.

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