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Doug Elliott poses with stepdaughter Dani Johnson, wife Kim Elliott and stepson Ryan Johnson in 2004. |
The wife and children of a Locust Grove man killed when he attacked an Orange County deputy have been awarded workers-compensation benefits after a panel ruled that his death was linked to a job-related injury.
Doug Elliott, 32, was shot to death Dec. 2, 2004, when he attacked Deputy Thomas A. "Moose" Mallory with an ice pick outside a doctor's office in Orange.
Kim Elliott attributed her husband's aggressive behavior to unrelenting pain and depression caused by medication withdrawal ordered by the insurance company. She called her husband's death a "suicide by cop," a phenomenon in which a person creates a situation that forces an officer to kill him.
Elliott smashed three vertebrae in his back when he fell off a roof while building a house in 2001.
Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., the workers compensation insurance carrier for Elliott's employer, Cross Country Construction, later cut back his medical and disability benefits. The insurance company's nurse/case manager denied pain medication to Elliott, claiming he was addicted to OxyContin.
An autopsy, however, showed no sign of narcotic addiction.
Elliott was in his therapist's office in Orange when he started stabbing himself with an ice pick to relieve his back pain. Office staff called 911 and Mallory was sent to the scene.
In the parking lot outside, Elliott rushed at Mallory with the ice pick and stabbed him in the head and shoulder. Mallory shot Elliott in the leg, and when the attack continued, fired two bullets into Elliott's chest.
"I don't blame the officer," Kim Elliott said at the time. "He did what he had to do. My husband did not give him a choice. He walked up to the officer and told him to 'fire it up.'"
The investigation into Elliott's death quickly cleared Mallory, a 25-year law-enforcement veteran, of wrongdoing.
The Virginia Workers Compensation Commission found this week that Elliott's death "was the result of a mental disturbance resulting from ongoing pain and depression secondary to the occupational accident" that injured him. It ruled that Ohio Casualty must pay Elliott's family the benefits that it denied him while he was alive and compensation for his death.
Elliott left a wife, daughter and two stepchildren. The total amount of compensation was not available yesterday.
"Because of the insurance company nurse, Mr. Elliott had to stop taking the OxyContin cold turkey," said Susan Stieglbauer, a legal assistant for the Elliott family's attorney, Douglas Landau. The withdrawal, a month before his death, led to erratic and suicidal behavior, she said.
"We loved Doug dearly," said Cross Country's Jean Mullins. "We thought the insurance company had taken care of Doug and his family. The first we heard about it [the insurance company denying benefits] was when we read about his death in the paper."
Mullins said her son, company owner Brian Mullins, did not renew the policy with Ohio Casualty when its term was complete.
She added that she had not heard from the Elliott family.
"This is between them and the insurance company," she said. "We dropped that insurance company. We were taking money out of our own pockets to help Doug out."
To reach ROBIN KNEPPER:
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net
