Not sure if it's worth it, but I had a similar issue.
While charging in my car charger (I just purchased a Griffin) the entire phone went dead. When rebooted the backlight would not work, I tried brightness auto/off settings with no result, the screen would work when connected to usb. I restored it and the issue became a flickering backlight but lost it's ability to charge.
No matter where I plugged it it refused to charge. It is now dead and will not respond to anything hard reset or otherwise.