WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to personally intervene and take all necessary steps to quickly resolve problems at the Department of Justice that have prevented the children of Baltimore City Fire Department Cadet Racheal Wilson from receiving survivors’ benefits. Cadet Wilson perished in a live burn training exercise more than two-and-a-half years ago.

“Racheal Wilson’s death was a terrible tragedy, unbearable to all those who knew and loved her,” Senator Mikulski said. “Cadet Wilson’s children have been robbed of their mother – and now they’re being robbed of the financial support that she earned and they deserve. Her family can count on me to fight for them.”

Senator Mikulski is Chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Department of Justice.

Go to http://mikulski.senate.gov/_pdfs/Press/11509AGHolderLetter.pdf to view the signed letter. Text of the Senator Mikulski’s letter is below.

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I write to request your personal intervention on behalf of my constituent, Larry Davis, guardian and father of Princess Ja’Daia Davis, daughter of Racheal M. Wilson. Cadet Racheal Wilson of the Baltimore City Fire Department died during a live burn training exercise in 2007. The Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program denied benefits to Cadet Wilson’s children, reporting that the record did not establish that Cadet Wilson was a “firefighter.”

Survivor’s benefits have already been awarded to the children’s guardian from the Maryland State Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Cadet Wilson was, without question, a member of the IAFF Firefighters Union Local 734, which has been attempting to learn what additional information the Department of Justice requires in order to award the benefits. Their efforts to elicit substantive responses from Department of Justice staff have met with no success. The Baltimore City Fire Department expresses the same frustration.

I know that you share my unwavering commitment to providing for our nation’s first responders and their families. The death of Cadet Racheal M. Williams was a tragedy for her family, the Baltimore City Fire Department and the larger community. We cannot compound this tragedy by summarily dismissing the request for earned benefits by saying that the information provided is insufficient. I ask that you direct the Department’s staff to take whatever measures are necessary to make request for the specific documents needed to be able to process her case.

Racheal Wilson died in February 2007– over 2 ½ years ago. The Department of Justice cannot delay any further helping resolve this case in a favorable manner.

I appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.