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| Inmate Firefighter's Daughter Denied Benefits |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/30/2001 |
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The Justice Department denied death benefits to the 11-year-old daughter of an inmate killed by lightning while fighting a wildfire last year. Relatives of Michael Todd Bishop had applied for $147,000, but the federal agency said his inmate status made him ineligible. 'Although inmate Bishop had been properly trained as a firefighter ... Mr. Bishop was not a public safety officer,' Valerie Neal, head of the benefit program, said in a Jan. 30 letter of denial. Bishop, 27, was convicted of attempted homicide for firing a shotgun at Salt Lake City police officers during a car chase. He and another inmate, Rodgie Braithwaite, 26, were killed Aug. 23 as they huddled with other crew members near a large rock in the Stansbury Mountains, seeking shelter from lightning and heavy rain. They were part of the Utah State Prison's Flame-N-Go firefighting program. Utah law also makes the inmates ineligible for state benefits. Bishop's family plans to appeal the federal ruling to the Court of Claims, though Cindy Reynolds, mother of 11-year-old Natasha Sharee Whittaker, said she was not optimistic. 'Natasha lost her father. It's something the judicial system needs to look at for future inmates, because they put no value on these guys' lives,' Reynolds said. No relative of a fallen prison firefighter has ever received federal insurance money, Justice spokeswoman Sheila Jerusalem said. Braithwaite was survived by a common-law wife and child, but his family has so far not sought death benefits. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. Hamilton Lindley His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.