Eichhorn, a 12-year department veteran, would not discuss the suit. Her attorney said those benefits, paid by the city's workers' compensation carrier, were not enough. The suit seeks an unspecified amount of money.

Eichhorn, he said, is a victim. Her knee aches, and she will likely develop arthritis.

If the Cosmillos had made their pool baby-proof, police would not have been called to the scene, there would have been no water on the floor, and Eichhorn would not have hurt herself, attorney David Heil said.

"It's a situation where the Cosmillos have caused these problems, brought them on themselves, then tried to play the victim," he said.

The department's personnel file on Eichhorn, who earns $48,000 a year, is filled with letters of praise. She has worked as a prostitution decoy and a hostage negotiator, and once wrestled a box of razor blades away from a person threatening suicide.

"She is the best sergeant within the police department and should become the next lieutenant," her supervisor wrote in a job review in 2003.

"Sgt. Eichhorn is a good officer," Pavlis said Tuesday.

He urged her not to file the lawsuit, he said, but there was nothing he could do.

The Cosmillos have not given the suit much attention, they say.

Richard Cosmillo is busy looking after Joey, whose name he had tattooed over his heart a few days after the accident, when doctors told the family the boy would survive only a few hours.

But Joey, now almost 23 months old, has survived. He can smile, and he appears to recognize music, his grandparents say. His grandfather hopes for much more.

"Joey is a Roman gladiator. He is an absolute warrior," Richard Cosmillo said. "There isn't anything or anyone in this world that I love as much as him."