Aurora Rotary - First Responders

Luncheon to honor police officers, fire fighters, and EMT, for acts of heroism and going above and beyond the call of duty to serve our community

The City of Aurora Honor Guard presented the colors and opened the ceremonies.

President Susan presided in her normal exemplary manner of smoothness and poise.

Michael Rankin, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the Denver Division of the FBI.

Agent Rankin spoke of some of the foreign assignments he has had in helping Iraqis and Afghanis collect intelligence without resorting to torture. He particulary praised Chief Oates and the Aurora Police Department for their help in surveiling and apprehending Naji Bullah Sazi, who had trained in Pakistan in making bombs out of easily obtained salon chemicals. He had practiced making the bombs in a hotel room in Aurora. He allegedly planned to blow up the New York Subway system in the same manner that was used in London.

One of the major changes since 9/11 is the improvement of information sharing between agencies.

Dave Williams, Chairman of the Aurora Civil Service Commission presided on a post humous award to fellow Civil Service Commissioner Jan Raskin who passed away this Thanksgiving Day.

Chief Oates congratulates Sgt. Joe Young for rescuing two toddlers from their father who had just murdered their mother.

Sgt. Gary Reno received an award for saving and resuscitating a lady who had tried to commit suicide by hanging herself.

Officer Frank Fania followed up on a cold murder case that happened in 2004. He coordinated a search that located and apprehended Tommy Halfacre in Kansas City, Mo.

Officer David Pearson was honored for valor in stopping a suspect that opened fire on him and his partner. His supervisor Sgt. Craig Baumfalk received the award in the absence of Officer Pearson.

EMS Captain Kevin Moffitt, EMS Med 2 Tom McKay, Chief Garcia, EMS 2 Floyd Salazar, Med 2 Drew Baske. Not pictured EMS Manager Kevin Waters.

The Emergency Medical Services has developed improved training that uses best practices in Cardiac Alert, Smoke Alert, and Therapeutic Induced Hypothermia programs that have saved more lives in the first seven months of 2009 than in the previous 3 years combined.

Fire Chief Mike Garcia presented a team award to Truck Company 2, Firefighter Wayne Lashley, Firefighter Pete Ellis, Captain Nancy Reublin, and Engineer Brian Good. Company 2 was doing driver training when they detected smoke coming from a mobil home park. They found a mobil home engulfed in flames with a frantic individual trapped inside. They were able to extract the individual and defensively fight the fire until backup arrived.

Fire Code Inspection Bureau Lieutenant Steve Beumer received the award for assisting the Double Tree in remaining open after an electrical fire took out the emergency lighting system. The hotel would have had to be evacuated if Lieutenant Beumer hadn't devised a program where people would be stationed on each floor to provide emergency lighting in the case of an additional emergency,

Lieutenant Beumer acted quickly to get a sufficient number of off-duty fire department employees to implement the response plan.

Manager Mike Bedwell presented the award to Telecommunicator 1 Gustavo "Gus" Chavez. He took a 911 call that a baby had stopped breathing and was turning blue. Gus calmly and effectively gave instructions on how to perform CPR to the caller that relayed the information to the person doing the actual resuscitation on the baby.

The bridge of trust created by Gus and embraced by the caller in this intense emergency saved the baby's life.

Dave Patterson of Rural Metro Ambulance presented the award to Scott Rodriguez who has been recognized as the "Paramedic of the Year" for the state of Colorado.

Dave presented the award to Paramedic Dan Jensen who works in the Aurora 911 system supervising Rural/Metro "B" shift EMT's and Paramedics. Dan likes helping people and appreciates the intellectual challenge of pre-hospital medicine.

Group picture of Aurora Police, Metro Ambulance, and Public Safety honorees.

Luncheon to honor policemen, fire fighters, and EMT, for acts of heroism and going above and beyond the call of duty to serve our community.

The Committee: Sheila Martin, Dave Williams, Howard Hall, Doug Evans, Ken Hostetler, and Joe and Janeen Little.

Local police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians honored

By BRANDON JOHANSSON
The Aurora Sentinel

AURORA | The Aurora financial crimes detective who last spring led an investigation into one of the biggest identity theft rings in the metro area’s history was one of a handful of Aurora police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians honored last week by the Rotary Club of Aurora.

Detective Mike Leiker was honored for his work on the case, which police said was one of the most complicated and massive identity theft cases the department had investigated.

Leiker, who grew up in Aurora and has worked economic crimes for the department for more than a decade, said the award was an honor.

“I was very happy to accept this on behalf of the work this unit did,” he said.

Sgt. Bob Wehmer, who oversees the department Economic Crimes Unit, said the case was a challenging one for police.

“The amount of evidence they had to go through was huge,” he said. “These are difficult cases to work.”

Wehmer said Leiker’s knowledge of fraud cases and his connections with other law enforcement agencies in the area were a big asset to the department during the investigation.

In May, police announced that the investigation had netted 20 indictments.

Police say the group stole more than $400,000 from 472 victims around the metro area, often stealing purses and wallets from cars parked at dog parks and fitness centers and using the personal information to steal identities.

The group spent the money on living expenses and lavish televisions, police said, but the primary motivator for the thefts was to get money to fuel the group’s methamphetamine habit.

Aurora police led the investigation, with 10 detectives working full time on 219 cases. Denver police and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office also investigated the ring.

Eight of the 20 people were charged under the Colorado Organized Crime Act, police said.

In addition to stealing from cars, the group also stole checks from apartment drop boxes and altered the checks so they could cash them, police said. The group also used fake documents to take out payday loans.

The department also honored Officer Edward Acuti who officials say saved an infant last May.

Acuti responded to a home May 21 and found the child’s uncle trying to resuscitate the baby after he fell under the water in a bath tub.

Acuti realized that the uncle, who was on the phone with 911, was too distraught to help the child so he stepped in and performed CPR.

The baby was taken to a hospital and survived. Doctors said the baby would have died if Officer Acuti hadn’t acted quickly.

The club also honored Lt. Sam McGhee and Lt. Jim Puscian for their work on last summer’s Democratic National Convention in Denver and Sgt. Tim Holt for pulling over a man who was suspected of a plot against President-elect Barack Obama.

At the luncheon where the officers and other emergency responders were honored last week, Ron Perea, U.S. Secret Service special agent in charge of Colorado, commended Aurora police for their work on the DNC and for the department’s handling of the alleged threat to Obama.

Other public safety employees honored by Rotary for their work were:

• Christopher Hogg, a 911 dispatcher at the Aurora Public Safety Communications Center;

• City Manager Ron Miller;

• Ian Farrell, an EMT Basic with Rural Metro Ambulance;

• Tiffany Berg, an EMT Basic with Rural Metro Ambulance;

• Aurora fire paramedic Lt. Roy Seaton;

• Aurora fire Capt. Douglas Neisen;

• Aurora fire Lt. Stephen Mills

• Aurora fire Capt. Mark Hays;

• Aurora fire Lt. Richard Mashek.

Position	Name	Time to Arrive
Room Setup
1	Howard Hall	10:30 a.m.
2	Jeff Apitz	10:30 a.m.
3	Debbie Lynch	10:30 a.m.
4	Tom Nicholas	10:30 a.m.

Audio/Visual Setup
1	Ben Keyes	10:45 a.m.
2	Tom Nicholas

Check In Tables
1	Doug Anthony	11:00 a.m.
2	Marci Sis	11:00 a.m.
3	Angela Huttun-Howard	11:00 a.m.
4	Wendy DeBell	11:00 a.m.

Greeters/Herders
1	Debbie Lynch	11:00 a.m.
2	Jim Rogers	11:00 a.m.
3	Jerry Allen	11:00 a.m.
4	Chuck Cluster	11:00 a.m.
5	Christine Hoppee	11:00 a.m.
6	Ron Maclachlan	11:00 a.m.
7	Susan Perkins	11:00 a.m.

Awards Table
1	Shelia Martin	10:30 a.m.
2	Tom Nicholas

Tables	Table Sponsor Name
Row 1 T 1	Commerce Bank
Row 1 T 2	Rural Metro of Central Colorado
Row 1 T 3	M&M Auto Reconditioning Inc.
Row 1 T 4	Aurora Rotary President'sTable
Row 1 T 5	SAM's
Row 1 T 6	Aurora Police Chief's
Row 1 T 7	Aurora Fire Administration
Row 2 T 8	Doug Evans State Farm Insurance
Row 2 T 9	Aurora Police Special Operations Bureau
Row 2 T 10	Public Safety Communications
Row 2 T 11	Lupus Foundation of Colorado
Row 2 T 12	Cherry Creek School District
Row 2 T 13	Aurora Civil Service Commission
Row 2 T 14	Aurora Police District 3
Row 3 T 15	Perkins Ruschena LLC
Row 3 T 16	Aurora Fire Fighters Association
Row 3 T 17	Aurora Police Association
Row 3 T 18	Citywide Bank
Row 3 T 19	Fraternal Order of Police
Row 3 T 20	Aurora Police Investigations Bureau
Row 3 T 21	Kraus Enterprises
Row 4 T 22	First Bank
Row 4 T 23	Advantage/Colorado Insurance
Row 4 T 24	Aurora Gateway Rotary
Row 4 T 25	CCA/CCA Foundation
Row 4 T 26	Wells Fargo
Row 4 T 27	Lend Lease
Row 4 T 28	Aurora Chamber of Commerce
Row 5 T 29	Lachian Inc. Rotary Members
Row 5 T 30	Bob Broom, Council Member Honor Guard
Row 5 T 31	Adolfson and Peterson Construction
Row 5 T 32	Aurora Rotary Table
Row 5 T 33	Aurora Rotary Table

Local police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians honored

By BRANDON JOHANSSONThe Aurora Sentinel

By BRANDON JOHANSSON
The Aurora Sentinel