Baltimore Co. resident severely injured on job receives large backpay after contacting Congressman years later

BALTIMORE - Imagine getting hurt on the job but then being repeatedly denied back-pay, not for months but for years.

Vogel Hill, a Baltimore County resident, said that's what happened to him after he was severely injured on the job.

Hill said he was working as a police officer at a federal agency in Northern Virginia in 2017 when an automatic barricade slid up out of the ground right underneath his cruiser.

 "I get hit," Hill said. "The truck bounces probably about between five to seven times, actually literally bounced like off the ground."

Hill said that the pain was so severe that he couldn't go back to work.

"I saw the doctor at agency and she kept me out indefinitely," Hill said. "She touched me in like places like I was hurting and said there is no way, I don't know what's wrong with you, but there's no way you can come back anytime soon."

As Hill tried to overcome the medical issues, he said there was another challenge.

The agency he worked for stopped paying him and workers' compensation was denied.

 "It was a real struggle for two years," Hill said. "I got a lot of letters like this call, like foreclosure or repossession, was all coming in and stuff, it was coming in quite frequently."

After years of trying to figure it out on his own, Hill said he called his congressman - Kweisi Mfume - and then in a matter of days more than $80,000 in back pay was deposited to his bank account.

"Everything's normal now. Everything's either paid off or back to normal. It was a big help," said Hill. "The Congressman's office said they get about 2,000 requests annually from people who need help with getting through to federal agencies like the Social Security Administration or even the IRS."

Members of Congress are able to use their influence to help the very people who put them into office on issues with federal agencies, to the need to expediting passports or even to get a recommendation for students who want to attend a military institution, such as the Naval Academy.

"435 congressional districts, so you multiply 2,000 or 4,000 times that. That is a lot of people who are seeking help and who need somebody to really get in and advocate on behalf of them," said Congressman Mfume.

Congressman Mfume says he hopes Hill's story will encourage more people to call their representatives when they need help with federal issues.

 "Bureaucracies tend to breed confusion and confusion tends to put in place a rather lackadaisical spirit sometimes," said Congressman Mfume. "And so, while there are people in positions to do the right thing, it'll sit on this desk. It'll sit on that desk, it may sit on this desk, and unless there's somebody there, pushing it all through, it gets stuck like that, and that happens to often."