Saugus family hopes for conclusion in benefits battle

SAUGUS – A new bill submitted in the State House Thursday has given hope to a Saugus family that a 14-year battle with the commonwealth may finally come to an end.Appleton Street resident Maura Shaw lost her husband, Boston Police officer Kenneth Shaw, in 1998 to hepatitis C five years after being diagnosed with the disease. Shaw said her husband, who also served as a Saugus Police officer in the 1960s, died one month after receiving a liver transplant.It was then that Shaw’s struggle to receive death benefits started.”The state denied the benefits because they wanted a specific incident or specific person who gave my husband the disease,” said Shaw. “It’s been tough. He passed away before he could put in the paperwork for the disability. I had to sell my diamond ring to keep the house, which was devastating for me.”But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the Shaws after State Rep. Martin Walsh D-Dorchester submitted a bill Thursday morning aimed at settling the issue once and for all.Walsh said the bill would allow Shaw to receive 72 percent of her husband’s pension, and is similar to a bill he’s been working on that would allow other families in similar circumstances to collect benefits.”The family reached out to me on this ?” said Walsh. “So I filed a bill today that would allow Mr. Shaw’s widow to receive the pension that they were entitled to. It was a late file so it will have to get a number and have a hearing then move through the process like any other legislation.”Walsh said if his larger bill passes, the burden of proof will be put on the state instead of the family.”I’m hopeful,” said Walsh. “I had some conversations with leadership of the house. Now that there is a bill I’ll try to see if I can move it through the process. This is a question of fairness, is what this is. Unfortunately when Mr. Kenneth Shaw was a police officer, a lot of the precautions that are in place today weren’t back then.”Shaw said she had just about given up until she connected with Walsh.”I don’t know how long the whole process is going to take, but just to have something written up to put through is just unbelievable,” said Walsh. “I just figured that was the end of it when nothing happened with our lawyer.”Sitting at the dinner table in her Saugus home on Thursday, Shaw’s daughter, Stephanie Frye, remembered her father as a “jokester” and a “family man.”Frye recounted one time when she went camping with her dad and some family members in Maine. After hearing reports about a bear in the area, her dad slowly slipped away from the camp fire they were all sitting around without anyone noticing.”My uncle was telling ghost stories ? and the next thing we know my dad came around the house with a blanket over him and roared ?” said Frye. “My father was dying laughing. He thought it was the best thing in the world.”Frye said her father loved his job as a crime scene investigator, and worked on several high-profile cases, including the “Swedish Nanny” murder case, a notorious murder in Boston where the body of 20-year-old nanny was found sawed in half in a dumpster in the Back Bay.”They say there’s one case that will always stick with you,” said Frye. “That was the one.”Shaw got his start as a Saugus Police officer in 1967 where he started the Patrolman’s Union. In 1970 he became a Boston Police officer, but it was 23 year later when he first received his diagnosis.Shaw said her husband regularly donated blood to the Red Cross, but in 1993 they sent a letter saying he could no longer donate because he had hepatitis C.”Even then, hep C, no one was really worried about it,” said Shaw. “We were told not to worry about it.”Shaw would succumb to the disease five years later, which started his family’s long struggle.”He was an unbelievable husband and father,” said Shaw. “His family meant everything to him.”With a bill now submitted, Frye said she’s hoping it will bring closure to other families that have been suffering.”I believe the more