No Way to Treat a Hero

Ask anyone in L.A. how he feels about a firefighter who gives his life to save another and he’ll explode in a shower of praise and sympathy.

Ask the mayor, ask all the legislators, ask every government employee, ask all the bus drivers, ask every homeowner, ask all the schoolkids.

They’ll say there is no greater gift to public service than to sacrifice one’s life for a stranger, and they’ll be right.

Then why is the mother of a man who did just that being denied state benefits for the death of an only son who was her sole support?

It isn’t as though a fortune is involved in the case of Karen Langley. The most she was scheduled to receive was $95,000, an amount equal to about a week’s pay in the NBA.

That’s little enough for the life of a bright and caring son, a county fireman who fell from the doorway of a helicopter four years ago trying to rescue an injured climber in Topanga State Park.

I was near the area and remember seeing Jeff Langley in the chopper, feet planted on its skids, moments before the accident, arms outstretched on each side as he clung to the aircraft like a crucifix in the sky.

The helicopter hovered in my view for only 30 seconds and then was gone over the ridgeline, beyond the oaks, where Langley’s safety harness gave way for reasons never determined and he fell 70 feet to his death. He was 28.

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The outpouring of grief was immense and sincere. A hero had fallen among us, a man who for a decade had dedicated his life to the service of rescue, leaving his image inscribed on the vivid air.

The thought of suing never entered Karen Langley’s head. Her son loved his work and those he worked with; it would have seemed almost sacrilege to sue, though reason to do so probably existed.

Jeff had been the sole support of his divorced mother and she was the beneficiary of his life insurance. Shortly after he died, she was notified that, as her son’s dependent, she was entitled to receive state death benefits of up to $95,000 at the rate of $336 a week.

For two years Langley, now 52, received checks totaling about $42,000. Then, on Aug. 25, 1995, the checks stopped with this terse explanation: “We need to obtain additional information to determine if you are a dependent, total dependent or partial dependent.”

Since then, both Langley and her attorney, Jack Koszdin, have been trying to find out why the state Department of Industrial Relations, which handles death benefits through the county, abruptly stopped the payments.

She was told by a county claims adjuster only that she’d better hire a lawyer. It was indicated that she might even have to return the money she had already received.

The case has remained in limbo for two years, though under normal circumstances unwarranted claims for death benefits are supposed to be denied within 90 days.

“We don’t know how this got started or why,” Langley says. “It all seems too cruel and senseless.”

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She used what money she had left to buy a small restaurant in Los Olivos outside Santa Barbara, but it barely pays its own way. Koszdin has agreed to delay collection of his fee until the case is ended.

“Karen is still in grief,” he told me. “She has lost her only son and the state is being heartless. How little can you pay for a life?”

A lawyer for the Department of Industrial Relations told Langley he couldn’t discuss the situation with her because it was “in litigation.” My phone calls to the man went unreturned.

Langley is struggling but not starving and will probably make a success of her business. Like her son, she’s blessed with a strength of spirit that endures in the tightest of circumstances. But whether she’s rich or not, successful or not, isn’t the point. We owe her.

There seems little question that she was her son’s dependent. Larry Collins, a County Fire Department captain and a friend of Jeff’s since he was 18, said Jeff worked overtime to pay his mother’s bills as well as his own.

“It’s strange,” Collins said, “but Karen wouldn’t be in this predicament if he hadn’t been killed. He’d have cared for her as long as necessary. Only because Jeff gave his life for others is she having so many problems.”

We live in an age of lopsided values. Governments pay millions to settle claims that border on the bizarre and challenge small amounts due the mother of a guy who died trying to save a stranger. So doing, the state dishonors him and the life he sacrificed without a moment’s hesitation. Is that any way to treat a hero?

Al Martinez can be reached online at al.martinez@latimes.com