OAK HARBOR, Wash. -- Hot on the trail of one of our state's most notorious fugitives, a local cop crashed head-first into disaster. Instead of bagging the biggest case of the year, Pat Kelley's world disintegrated.

He believed his government stood by cops injured in the line of duty. He was wrong.

"I thought there was a code that we took care of our own," says former Whitman County Detective Sergeant Pat Kelley. "We don't. They don't. They haven't."

Pat Kelley has just one speed these days: slow. Everything he does, from getting out of bed to a trip to the grocery store, must be planned out precisely.

The decorated cop believed the promise of the U.S. Department of Justice that, if something happened, they would take care of him and his family. Now Kelley is on his own, his body broken beyond repair.

"It was a horrific crash," says Whitman County Sheriff Steve Tomson, recalling the night five years ago when he got the call about Kelley's crash. "It was a bad accident, he had severe injuries, we didn't know really if he was going to make it or not."

It was May 27, 2002. Kelley was driving home from Nevada where he was investigating the Fred Russell case. That was a gruesome drunk-driving crash the year before that killed three Washington State University students. Russell fled the country, and Whitman County wanted detective Kelley on the case.

"He was an extremely good detective," says Tomson. "He'd be in the top few detectives I've known, in any organization."

Kelley was a K9 officer, drug investigator, and SWAT team leader - he did it all. During the WSU riots, he dislocated his shoulder and rioters stabbed him.

But nothing stopped Pat Kelley.  "Very motivated," says Tomson, "highly motivated."

Until the crash.

Another drunk driver hit Kelley's cruiser head-on. "My legs were burning, there was fluid coming in," Kelley says. He described being trapped inside, the only thing working on his mangled body was his right arm.

"I didn't want to burn to death so I got my gun out. If the car didn't stop and if I caught on fire I was going to shoot myself."

Everyone thought Kelley was going to die.

"He broke his scapular shoulder bone, he broke his hip on the left, he broke his wrist in two places on the left, he broke his knee on the right, he broke his ankle, he had seven rib fractures," said Dr. Doug Langrock.

After five surgeries and years of rehab, Kelly is as good as he's going to get. In addition to disabilities you can see, he also suffered a head injury and can't sit or stand for long.

"He just has a lot of pain when he does that," says Dr. Langrock, "and he has difficulty with concentration over a period of time."

Kelley now supports his family, including his youngest, adopted son Matthew, on disability payments from Social Security and Labor and Industries.

"I'm almost to the point right now where I'm going to have to sell the house and move to an area where the cost of living is lower," Kelley said. "And it's wrong. I shouldn't have to."

The U.S. Department of Justice could help. Years ago, Congress authorized a program to help cops and firefighters who are killed or disabled in the line of duty. But the DOJ ruled Kelley isn't completely disabled.

KOMO 4 called the Department of Justice repeatedly. They would not do an on-camera interview and only answered questions if we e-mailed them.

But we discovered that until last fall, their own regulations required that if there was a doubt, DOJ had to rule in favor of the officer.

For some reason the DOJ dumped that requirement. And no one will tell us why the government doesn't think Pat Kelley deserves benefits.

"It's like somebody back in Washington, D.C. is telling me via a pen that I didn't sacrifice enough," Kelley said.

And Pat Kelley isn't alone. While the number of Officer Disability Claims has more than doubled in the past four years, the Department of Justice continued to pay just a handful of them.

Only 17 officers received benefits last year. So Pat Kelley has a new mission -- to fight for change to help other officers injured in the line of duty.

According to the Department of Justice website, the program was designed to give "peace of mind" to people considering careers in the dangerous professions of law enforcement.

For Pat Kelley, the one-time payment of nearly $300,000 would help him pay off his mortgage and make sure his youngest son can go to college.