Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1507551
36 | SIGNATURE MONTANA "Aer Jake died, I was in no mental state of mind to try and figure out anything, let alone comprehend finances," Monica said. "In those moments, it is indescribable what all the emotions do to you mentally and physically. Finding out that I just lost the love of my life and my children just lost their father was more than I could handle at the time… I couldn't eat, think, or even worry about anything other than how I was supposed to get up the next day for my children." But no amount of grief and loss can stop the bills from rolling in – a stark reality that the board of directors at the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (MSPOA) has witnessed time and time again. Among them is Tony Harbaugh, who served as Custer County Sheriff for 42 years prior to his retirement in 2020. He has sat on the MSPOA board since 1985. During his decades of service, Tony and other members of the board identified a need for a fund to help provide financial assistance to the families of officers who are catastrophically injured or killed in the line of duty in the immediate aermath of the family's tragedy. "ere's no financial mechanism that steps in immediately, so oen what happens is that between the officer's death and the time of their funeral, their families are notified by the insurance company that they no longer have coverage," Tony said. "If they have a life insurance policy, it could take months for benefits to kick in. If it is a line of duty death, there is supposed to be a federal policy that covers it, but that can take two to five years, and there are a lot of caveats." Workers' compensation and Social Security also take time to push through. "MSPOA wanted to create something separate from the association funds that would enable us to help alleviate financial burdens for families within that first 72-hour timeframe of the incident," Tony said. Gallatin County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Allmendinger Cascade County Sheriff's Deputy Joe Dunn left a young family behind when he was killed in the line of duty on August 14, 2014. Gallatin County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Allmendinger and his wife, Monica, pose with their three young children.