Deputy

by Cliff Yates

  At Walnut I worked with a partner, Joe Lomonaco. I never met anyone with more of a can-do attitude than he had. One thing he also had was an addiction to Skittles. Wherever we went, he had his Skittles. Before we went 10-8 in the field, we checked our car, guns, equipment and Joe's supply of Skittles.

  We worked Rowland Heights, a county area that was predominantly Hispanic and Asian, but mostly Asian. The Asian restaurants were getting robbed at gunpoint on a regular basis. Asian gangs were a violent and active problem. Joe had worked Lakewood Station where they had tracker cars for money the bank kept which had a metal chip in it. When it was pulled from the drawer, the spring metal clips would contact each other and activate the chip. The track cars had boxes on the dashboard which would indicate with arrows the direction these chips were transmitting from so you could home in on the location of the money after it was taken from the bank. They also had these packs the size of a pack of cigarettes. They had a mercury bubble inside; when they were moved, they activated and sent a signal to the tracker cars.

  Joe had a great idea. He said we could loan two Walnut cars to Lakewood in exchange for two-tracker cars. We could then put the packs and money in the Asian restaurants and catch the robbers in the act. These robberies were happening two or three times a week. Joe went to the Rowland Heights team leader deputy. He told the deputy he could write up the proposal, submit it, and take credit since he was the team leader for the area. The team leader told Joe he was nuts and that it would never be approved. He said he wasn't going to waste his time even proposing it. Joe asked the team leader if he could go ahead and try and get it done. He told Joe to go ahead.

  Joe went to the Captain and proposed the idea. The Captain was all for it. But he didn't understand how the logistics of the car exchange would work. Joe said he knew the parties that had to be contacted in order to get it done. The Captain gave him the go-ahead, saying, "If you can make it happen, you have the approval on my end."

  Joe made it happen. We did the car exchange and set out to distribute the packs that we put in purses to have the restaurant owners put behind the counter. During these robberies not only were they taking the money out of the registers, they were stealing the purses behind the counter that were usually left there by the hostess or the owner of the restaurant. At the beginning of the shift, we would go to our target restaurants, set up the registers and place the purses. We had enough purse packs and bait money for three restaurants. So, we would rotate the locations based on our best guess of where we thought the robbers might hit next. At the end of the shift, we would go back to the restaurants to pick up our wares.

  So, picture how this looks to people sitting in the restaurant having dinner. Two deputies walk in just before closing. The owner walks to the register, opens it and takes out money and hands it to uniformed deputies. Then reaches behind the counter and hands us a purse, and we walk out. People must have thought we were the dirtiest deputies they ever saw. We tried to go as late as possible or after the restaurant closed. But we were usually getting off at 10 pm, and many times these restaurants still had patrons inside.

  The team leader deputy was pissed off that Joe had made this happen. As if Joe had never gone to him and tried to let him have the credit for putting the operation together. Joe and I just wanted to catch the bad guys. Joe didn't care about getting the credit. This team leader guy never thought Joe could get it done, but he did. And man that guy was sour over it.

  We had a few mishaps with our bait money. Several times the alarm would go off in the tracker box. Something about that noise going off and the direction signal blinking got your blood going. Ultimately the tracker led us to the restaurant, and the owner would apologize either for moving the bait purse or pulling out the bait money by mistake. Us coming through the front door with guns drawn was enough to make sure that didn't happen twice.

  Eventually, the trackers got the robbers. Unfortunately, Joe and I were off, and two other deputies were able to take them down.

  Working Rowland Heights with Joe was a blast. We laughed our asses off on a daily basis. And he was a great cop. We made some good hooks. Joe ended up going to a different shift, and I did too. I had an opportunity to become a team member at the San Dimas Substation. Being a team member deputy meant that I would always be assigned out of the San Dimas station and not be bounced around based on vacancies in other patrol positions. If you were not a core member of a contract city or permanent car, you could find yourself working out of the Walnut station one day and the next day out of the sub-station. I was assigned a traffic car. Most deputies never want to work in a traffic car. I liked it. You had to handle accidents, but the rest of your day was self-initiated activity. San Dimas was a great little city. They loved the Sheriff's Department and contracted with plenty of crime and traffic cars. Some cities would run a little short. San Dimas always had good coverage.

  When I transferred to Walnut Station around January of 1991, I moved in with a deputy friend, Bill Costleigh. We lived in a condo at 1277 Sunflower Avenue, Covina about half a mile from the city limits of San Dimas. I joined the Bulldog Gym, which was just around the corner from our condo on Arrow highway just west of Sunflower Avenue. The gym was owned by a retired West Covina police officer. Most of the members were either law enforcement or firefighters, or the type that would support either.

  One afternoon in 1995, I was working a traffic car in the City of San Dimas, and I pulled over a pick-up truck for speeding. The driver said his name was Louie Pompei, and he was a Glendora Police Officer. He said he recognized me from the Bulldog Gym. I recognized his passenger as a dispatcher from the Walnut Station, and she told me that Louie was engaged to her sister. After that day, I would see Louie in the gym on a regular basis. One day I saw a tattoo on his leg, and he told me he got it in Rochester, NY while he was in the service. Being from the Rochester area, we bonded and worked out together quite often. He and his fiancée lived in San Dimas in my patrol area. During my shift, I would stop in and visit Louis and his fiancée.

  One day at the gym, I gave Louie a videotape of one of my stand-up comedy performances. The next time he saw me, he told me he laughed and laughed while watching the tape. He made me promise to invite him to my next performance. I told him I was going to a comedy seminar at Big Bear Mountain, where I would be learning how to promote my own shows, and that I would make sure he was at my first production.

  On June 1st of 1995, I began working a temporary assignment at the Lost Hills/Malibu Station. Every summer, they have a large team that works strictly at the beach. I didn't get to work the beach team, but it was a nice change working the coast. So for three months, I would not be working at San Dimas Station.

  On June 10th I was driving home from Big Bear Mountain, where I had attended that comedy seminar I had told Louis about. I was driving down the mountain in great spirits, when I got a phone call from a friend. He told me that Louie was shot and killed the night before in San Dimas.

  Louie, his fiancée, and her sister had gone to Mexico and returned late to San Dimas. Louie at this time was assigned to a multi-jurisdictional drug task force, undercover. Louie went to the Vons supermarket to buy some dog food. While waiting in line to pay, a gang member pulled out a gun and ordered everyone to get on the floor. Louis was caught in the middle of a robbery in progress. He initially complied with the gang member’s orders along with everyone else. When the gang member started pistol-whipping a clerk, Louis was compelled to intervene. He had no way of knowing; there was an accomplice standing behind him. When Louis intervened, the second gang member began shooting Louis in the back. Louie was able to wound two of the suspects and get to a pay phone in front of the store to dial 911.

  Louie died of his gunshot wounds. Two suspects were arrested at a nearby hospital, and a third suspect was later arrested. Two of the juvenile suspects were convicted as adults of murdering a police officer, receiving life sentences. The third suspect was convicted and received 26 years.

  A
t the service, I learned so much about Louie. So many people came. He was a devout Christian who had touched the lives of so many people with all of his good deeds, on and off duty. His dream was to be hired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. When he didn't get hired by the Sheriff's Department, he joined the Glendora Police Department.

  The junction of the 57 freeway and the 210 freeway was a memorial interchange, with signs indicating it is a memorial interchange dedicated to Glendora Police Officer Louie Pompei. Whenever I drive to Los Angeles from my home in La Verne, I pass these signs dedicated to Louie. When I do, I always remember my good friend. Sometimes I even give him a salute and tell him that I will always remember him. Please read about Louis at the Officer Down Memorial Page.

  SAN DIMAS STATION

  I WOULD SPEND the rest of my assigned time at Walnut Station working as a San Dimas Station team member. This is a memoir about my life as a cop, so I have purposely left out my love life trials and tribulations. But San Dimas is where I met my wife, who was working as a deputy out of Walnut. We met at the station in 1994 and started dating in 1995. We were married in 2002 and are still happily together today.

  Here I was suing, trying not to get out of Lynwood, and was so devastated when that didn't happen. I would never have met my love had I not been transferred. I often think of that song by Garth Brooks, and sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.

  There were many good times and blessings after being transferred to Walnut Station. But not too long after being transferred, I really went into a negative place. I was really pissed off and carried a lot of anger after the transfer. A lieutenant that had worked Lynwood transferred into Walnut Station, and he went after me big time. I had a complaint from a traffic stop I conducted and issued a ticket. The sergeant called me by phone to tell me about the complaint. I told him I had the entire contact on tape. He was surprised, saying, "You do? Let me hear the tape." I played the tape for him, and he said, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll tell the Watch Commander." He called me back and said, "I don't know what to tell you, he said he is still writing you up for discourtesy." I grieved it and had two sergeants hear me out, and I never heard anything more, so I thought it was over.

  Later I found out that the lieutenant put the writeup in my file as being discourteous. This same lieutenant called one of my partners in. He worked a sister car on my shift. He told my good friend to stay away from me, that I was a negative influence. He told my friend that I would drag his career down. My friend left his office and immediately told me of the conversation. This lieutenant had dated the same female deputy that I had dated, and I have to think that was part of his motivation. In retrospect, I was in a negative place, but that doesn't justify the way he went after me. But soon I would be turning things around and not blaming anyone but myself for my circumstances. Our attitudes, philosophies, and beliefs are all an inside job. It's not circumstances. It's how we respond to them that matters.

  I don't know how I got started into real estate, but I did. I got my real estate license and started going to sales training classes. I went to a seminar by Jim Rohn, who was the original teacher of Tony Robbins. I didn't even know there was a self-development, personal growth, motivational industry. I'm sure I read over 50 books on motivation and psychology. I read many of these books two and three times. When I changed, things began to change for me. All the skills that you learn in becoming a great real estate salesperson translates to the rest of your life. The power of a positive attitude was working in me every day. I was motivated to become a real estate agent and quit the Sheriff's Department. But as I grew as a person, I began becoming more successful at the department.

  In 1993 one of my self-help motivational books was by Tony Robbins, Awaken The Giant Within. This got me going and motivated to a new level. I read another book by Tony, Unlimited Power. I also took his 30-day cassette course. One of my good friends from NY came out to visit after a breakup, and I shared the course with him. He followed the course to the letter. He went on to great success. I took the next step and went to a UPW (Unlimited Power Within) live seminar. It was held in Anaheim, Ca, just a short drive down the freeway from San Dimas. It was a three-day seminar and cost $600.00. Everyone I knew from the department laughed at me and thought paying $600.00 to go to a seminar was ridiculous. If I had not gone to that seminar, I would not have changed my thinking and philosophy in amazing ways. I would never have been promoted to sergeant, which meant $1,000.00 extra a month. And I retired at 70% of my pay, so that meant an extra $700 each month. That is just one aspect of my new way of thinking that put money in my pocket. So the value of that seminar to me is 1,000 times what I paid. There were 2,000 people at that seminar, which was a lot of people.

  Fast forward 26 years later. My wife and I just went to a UPW seminar here in the Los Angeles Convention Center. There were 15,000 people. My wife had seen what going to the seminar had done for me and always wanted to go to a live event. I was ready to go again. We can always use a tune-up. She had done the 30-day tape program, and all the goals that she had written down came to be. So, she is a believer. It's great to be with someone likeminded. When I arrived at the seminar in 1993, all of a sudden I was with 2,000 likeminded people. This was great after being around so many naysayers at the department. I met a lady who owned a hair salon, and she brought her entire staff to the seminar. I met so many business-minded people, many of who had been to a seminar before.

  The second day is the fire walk. I was prepared for the fire walk and had no fear or anxiety in doing it. Now, each day of the seminar goes from 8 am to about midnight or 1 am. Each day. So at around 10 pm on the second day, they march all 2,000 of us down to the parking lot, and the fire is roaring. The flames and extreme heat changed my state of mind. I started having some fear and anxiety. Your brain sees the fire, and your skin feels the heat. Your logical brain tells you that this is dangerous, don't touch. And parked in the driveway of the hotel near the parking lot is a firetruck and two ambulances. This told me that someone could get hurt. They take us back up to the conference room for two more hours of the seminar.

  At about midnight, they take us back down, and by this time the flames were gone, and the red hot coals were spread out in about fifteen rows, fifteen feet long. And Tony is in the middle of the hot coals on a ladder, yelling, "More hot coals!" We were all in this together, so we all lined up and did our walks with no problem. It's not a trick, just a great metaphor for life. What else does your brain tell you, you can't do, but in fact you can do. Our brains are still running 2,000-year-old programs in an effort to protect us and keep us alive. Our environment has changed over 2,000 years, and sometimes we have to make conscious decisions based on what we believe now. It was great.

  And on the last day, the speaker was Joseph Mcclendon. He spoke on health and nutrition. I remember he said he hadn't had a cold in 5 years. I thought, That is bullshit. And now having switched to a plant-based mostly vegan lifestyle, I can now say I haven't had a cold in 4 years. When Alba and I went to the seminar at the L.A. Convention Center, Joseph Mcclendon was still part of the seminar.

  It was 1995, and I was working in a traffic car in San Dimas. I was set up working radar on the afternoon shift. I was on San Dimas Avenue when a BMW came into my radar at 65 mph in a 40 mph posted zone. I pulled out behind the BMW and activated my overhead emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop. The BMW did not stop, and the chase was on. I started broadcasting that I was in pursuit. I did see that the driver as he went by me looked like a youthful driver, so I put out over the radio that it was a possible stolen car.

  We turned right on to Via Verde Avenue, now going westbound in the eastbound lanes, and the east and west lanes were divided by a median with big trees. This was not good. After about two hundred yards there was a break in the median, and the BMW jerked to the right now traveling west in the westbound lanes. Surprisingly the Watch Commander was still letting the pursuit continue. I had numerous backup units responding fr
om all over to converge on my pursuit. We made a couple of quick turns, and the next thing you know we were in the parking lot of the Via Verde Country Club. We were screaming down the parking lot aisles, and people were throwing their clubs and jumping up on top of the back of their cars to avoid being hit. And then we were back on residential streets around the golf course. I had two other Sheriff cars join in the pursuit as an air unit came overhead and started calling the pursuit.

  We came to a four-way stop, and the BMW suddenly stopped. I initiated a felony stop with my assisting units. The driver and lone occupant complied with my orders as I barked them over the loudspeaker. The driver was a 16 year old male Asian. He said he stole the car from his mother. The boy's parents came to the station to pick up their son. Until we called the house, they didn't know their car and son were missing. This kid was so polite, and he had no prior arrests. When I asked why he ran and didn't stop when I tried to pull him over, he said he had seen the O.J. pursuit on the news earlier in the day, and he thought it looked like fun. That's police work. Every day is different, and you see all sorts of crazy things.

  I was now doing comedy again and working real estate out of a Century 21 office in Pasadena. I had a friend working Temple Sheriff's Station which was about 10 miles east of San Dimas and a couple of miles southwest of Pasadena. He said he loved working at Temple Station. He made a case for me to transfer there.

  He had worked with me at Lynwood Station. This sounded like the right move for me. I would be close to the Century 21 office in Pasadena, and I needed to be closer to Hollywood if I was going to continue my dreams in the entertainment industry. So I put my transfer in and in 1995 transferred to Temple Sheriff's Station Patrol.