John Courtney 1977 - 2009

On December 12, 1977, I was sworn in as a Deputy Sheriff by Sheriff John R. McDonald.

My first assignment was in the Main Jail, where my first training officer was Deputy Denny Caron.  After two months of jail training, I attended the 19th Basic Police Academy at Butte Community College in Chico, California.  Seventeen other deputies from our Office also attended the 19th Basic and our class nickname was "F" Troop.

Top Row (from the left) #3 Chuck Arnold, #6 Greg Munks

Row Two #1 John Courtney, #2 Tom Ross, #3 Dennis Doran, #4 Harold Butler, #5 Denny Scott #6 Brad Buckwalter, #7 Rudy Agerbeek, #8 Dave Kropelnicki

Row Three #2 Bruce Martin, #3 Michael Dirickson, #5 Joseph Fernandez

Bottom Row #1 Don Ibarra, #3 Vaneta Pollette, #4 Joette Strongone, #5 Kim Andermahr, #7 Dave Castle

Over the next several years I worked in various assignments, including the Main Jail, Honor Camp, Medium Security Facility (Birdcage), Transportation and Court Security, Civil Process, Patrol, Work Furlough, Women’s Correctional Facility, North County Jail in Daly City and South San Francisco, SFIA Patrol, the off-road motorcycle unit and the Manpower Pool.  I was also part of the Ceremonial Unit, which was not as formal as it is today.  Sgt. Erv Pronske would ask for volunteers from the night shift to attend funerals, which I regularly volunteered.

In 1978, 1979 and 1980, I was one of four members of the Sheriff’s Pistol Team, where we participated in the Northern California Practical Police Course (PPC), shooting 10 matches a year.  The team won several trophies and prizes and I earned a 300 pin.  The regular team members included myself, Dave Zahradnik, Horace Hurst and Joe LoSchiavo Sr.  Greg Munks and Fran Marsh attended a few matches to make a four man team when one of the regulars could not make it.  There is a 1st Place Team trophy in the Sheriff’s 3rd Floor Conference Room, from the 1980 Al Markell Memorial Match in Reno, Nevada.  I used a Colt Trooper III in 1978 and a Smith & Wesson Model 27 for the next two years.  The guns were stock, except for a smoothing out of the action.  In 1982 I participated in the Police Olympics motocross event in Sacramento, California.

       

In 1984, I was assigned to the Patrol Bureau, where I worked most beats, but from 1987 to 1989, I worked with Deputy Derral Ball on the South Coast graveyard beat, known as Adam 80.  We were a well known duo and came up with many new innovations, including the answering machine for patrol cars.

Another dayshift on Coast Patrol 1984.

On an accident scene in Woodside with Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1987.  I let Ken Jones take the crash......

Myself and Derral Ball in 1988.  We were on our way to Terry Nelson's funeral.

In 1989, I was transferred to Transportation and Court Security.  I had two long time assignments, the first was the 2nd Floor Holding, for four years, with some regular partners like Rich Bergmann, Mike McVay and Bill Peters.  I became the first Equipment Manager for the bureau and stayed there for two more years.  I was on the 7th floor of the Hall of Justice, with Deputy Ron Groen (Rocky) and two inmates when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit.  The courtrooms on the 7th floor were being remodeled and unknown to us, all of the scaffolding fell.  We all thought the building was going down, but we made it out without any problems.  The inmates were more scared than us.

Deputy Rich Bergmann, Detective Les Henry and myself in 1992.  Rich's retirement luncheon in Transportation.

In 1996, I traded places with Detective Craig Finlayson and was assigned to the Detective Bureau as a General Crimes detective.  My assignments over the next few years included computer crimes, auto theft, fraud, cattle rustling (still occurs) and some sex crimes.  My sergeant, Bill Cody, helped all of us become better detectives.  My partners, such as Darren Schofield, Doug Steiner and Dave Flood made this a great place to work.  Our chain of command, after Bill Cody, was Lieutenant Larry Boss, Captain Paul Feyling and Undersheriff Greg Munks.  It didn't get any better than that.

In 1999, Captain Paul Feyling asked me to work at the Vehicle Theft Task Force, since I was the auto theft detective.  Sheriff's Lieutenant Don O’Keefe was the Task Force Commander and Don and I worked well together.  I promoted to acting sergeant three weeks later and ran the unit for nine months before being promoted to sergeant.  Rob Steaveson, from Redwood City PD, Paul Ritter, from South San Francisco PD and Yogi Sharma, from the Highway Patrol worked for me.  I developed the first website for the Vehicle Theft Task Force which drew the attention of Court TV in New York.  The movie Gone in 60 Seconds had just been released and I had a video on our website "Gone in 40 Seconds".  One of our informants let us video tape him breaking into and stealing a Ford Mustang, which was donated by a local tow company.  They produced a Court TV segment comparing the movie to real life.  We were fortunate that they picked our agency, as they usually work with larger agencies like LAPD or New York PD.  The Court TV team said the website is why they came here.

In 2000, I took Sgt. Mark Wyss’ place as the North Team Supervisor in the Narcotics Task Force.  Deputies Brad Buckwalter, Al Elzey, Rick Tippins, Shary Clifford, Officers Tony Grech, from San Bruno PD, Bruce Jower from Brisbane PD, Ron Mussmann and Pat Hensley from Daly City PD worked for me.  It was a great place to be, T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes were the uniform of the day.

Sergeant's promotion in 1999, with Sheriff Don Horsley, left and Undersheriff Greg Munks.

In 2001, I was assigned to Transportation and Court Security as the Desk Sergeant.  Ted Goth was the lieutenant and allowed me to make several changes in the way business was done in the unit.  It was hard to find deputies for overtime, which were needed daily for our numerous vacant positions.  This was a nationwide problem at the time, where very few people were getting into law enforcement.  One of my solutions was to post signs around the Office stating "Transportation Overtime Available - We Take Walk-ins".  It was met with some laughs, but it did work.  Other sergeants in the Jail and Patrol were not happy with it's success, as they were competing for the same group of deputies as me.  I was only there for a year, being promoted to lieutenant in 2002.

Sheriff Don Horsley promoting me to Sheriff's Lieutenant in 2002.

In 2002, I was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the Maguire Correctional Facility. As a lieutenant, the jail is a great place to work.  I stayed there for two years until I was transferred to Transportation and Court Security to work for Captain Mark Hanlon, who was a great guy to work for. 

The Scott Peterson Trial was getting underway and required a lot of work and discipline from everyone in the Bureau, as the entire world was watching this trial.  Fortunately for us, the judge was the Honorable Alfred Delucchi, from Alameda County.  He ran a tight ship in the courtroom, was very down to earth and a real decent guy.  Two bailiffs, Jenne Carnevale and Mike Orange were assigned to the trial, along with two deputies to escort Peterson and one deputy as a doorman.  Everyone wanted into the courtroom.  The trial lasted over a year and in the end, the right person went to prison and the media never had anything to say about the Office, which was what we wanted.  Everyone did a great job.

Media circus for the Scott Peterson Trial in 2004 

Daily lottery for a hand full of seats in Courtroom 2M that were available to the public. 

Sheriff's Detective Bureau Receptionist Carol Hurst and Deputy Milan Radojevich.

Scott Peterson goes to San Quentin on March 17, 2005 - Happy St. Patrick's Day

Deputy Craig Cullen, Deputy Eric Forrester (pictured), Sgt. John Flahavan and myself took Peterson to San Quentin Prison.

Deputy 311- Sergeant 129 - Lieutenant 63 

Sesquentennial Badge for 2006 and 2007 

Going away party on my last day in Transportation, March 2007.  Incoming lieutenant Gil Rodriguez attended and sometime prior to the party, a pastry chef added some final touches to my cake......... 

In 2007, I was assigned to the Northern California Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center (RTTAC) as the Assistant Deputy Director.  Ron Brooks was the Director and also a captain for the Sheriff's Office.  I have known Ron for 30 years, remembering when he used to bring drunks and parking ticket warrant arrests to me, at the Main Jail, while he was working for Redwood City PD.  He is a great guy to work for or with and always has some great stories.  As with Mark Hanlon, our common interest in good wine, good food and good cigars always made for a good time.  I supervised several law enforcement officers from different agencies and several civilian analysts.  It was an interesting place to work. 

 

Part of the job was inspection of critical infrastructure.  It was a long walk up the cables. 

In 2007, Sheriff Munks, asked me to leave RTTAC and take over the Headquarters Patrol Bureau.  The original RTTAC position was as Deputy Director, held by Lt. Tom Maloney.  When Tom left, it was changed to Assistant Deputy Director.  The Office decided to reclassify the position for a Sheriff's Sergeant and Jeff Kearnan was selected. 

While in Patrol, I was responsible for the FTO program, the contract beats, SWAT team, Crisis Negotiation team, Bicycle unit, Major Accident unit, off and on road motorcycles and School Resources.  Patrol has a lot of moving parts and was very demanding.  The best part was being the SWAT team commander, as they are a very dedicated group.

 

For the month of August, in 2008, I was assigned as the Countywide Gang Task Force Commander.   I supervised three sergeants and approx. 25 police, state parole, county adult and juvenile probation officers.  Three groups were assigned to the Northern, Central and Southern areas of the County and had a zero tolerance for all gang related issues.  Lots of arrests were made and it reduced the gang related homicides to a point where the District Attorney, Jim Fox, told the group at the annual GTF picnic that he had to lay off some of his homicide prosecutors due to a lack of work.

Patrol Team III 2008 Inspection Day

L to R: Lt. John Courtney, Sgt. Mark Kuykendall, Deputies Ken Clayton, Mike Pugliese, Mark Cody, K9 Haro, Scott Grosso, Jason Peardon, Dan Hoss, Sheriff Munks and Capt. Trish Sanchez 

                       

Woodside May Day Parade 2008. 

The Patrol Lieutenant leads the parade and my grandson enjoyed throwing candy to the spectators.  Deputy Todd Schindler is the motor deputy for Woodside.

                      

                                            Sheriff's SWAT Team - June 2008                                                                    Training at Fort Hunter Liggett - 2008

                  

Every month the SWAT Team has range and everyone takes turn bringing lunch for a team of about 25 people.  It was my turn in July and I brought my personal French chefs with me.  The only thing that was missing was a good Bordeaux.

In 2008, I was completing my 31st year and decided to plan my retirement.  My wife and I help take care of my grandson and with her increasing travel, it seemed the right time to start.  I asked the Sheriff to be reassigned to the Maguire Correctional Facility for my last year, which he granted.  I went back to my old team, Team III, which was still a great team to work on, with sergeants Peter Ralls, Cef Gonzales and Tony Mariucci.  I planned on staying a year, but only made it unit March of 2009, due to the COLA retirees were going to get in April.  It worked out well. 

                  

               Team III retirement party - Sgt. Peter Ralls and Sgt. Gary Ramos                                        Team III Emergency Response Team

 

Correctional Officer John Feyling was also retiring that night. 

I think the best thing I did was to work nights in the jail.  Being in the mainstream of the Office, where all but two lieutenants are, makes it harder to retire.  I started when I was 22 years old and spent more than half my life here.  I grew up at the Sheriff's Office and it is not easy to leave.  There were some bad times, bad supervisors, lack of funds and all the other things that happen during a career, but you tend to forget the negative and focus on the good things.  I had a great career, a lot of laughs, put some bad people in jail and lived to tell about it.  I hope everyone can leave this job and open a new chapter in their lives, remembering the good times in the last chapter.  I know I will. 

 

Retirement is good and I work part time selling French wine to restaurants and wine bars.  Lots of left over samples at the end of the week which have to be properly disposed of.  So much wine, so little time.