Recollection of the Last True Easter Week

1967~1968

Russ Boggie and I were assigned the Balboa Island checkpoint in front of the old Villa Marina restaurant (now the location of Newport Beach Yacht Club, our meeting place). For equipment we had one of the old International Travelalls (new then) and numerous cones. 

At that time nearly every resident and homeowner had a decal for their cars indicating they were Balboa Island residents. This made it easier to know who to question and who not. 

We started our day at 3PM and went until 1AM. Someone had to bring us our meal from the “JR” (Jolly Roger) because we never left for those 8 days. The Villa Marina backdoor was our restroom entrance also. 

Each night we would confiscate numerous varieties of alcohol from minors and at the end of shift we took them to the City Yard for disposal. On the last Friday or Saturday before Easter we filled the back of the Travelall so full of booze we could barely get our cones in. We confiscated expensive hard liquor from these kids; surprisingly we could not have afforded to buy. 

We drove to the City Yard and found the gate was locked. We couldn’t get our load disposed of. The WC said to bring to the station and we’d get rid of it there. 

Now everyone knows that in each era of the history of the Department we have had our own particular character, whether it was “The Chief” or Corny Lynch, there was always one that stood out. In 1967, we had Paul Pierce, a painter from Costa Mesa who when painting was needed to be done at the station was picked up for 647f and Judge Christenson would ask how much painting we needed done and Paul’s sentence was usually that length of time. Paul also picked up enough work from employees at the department to keep him busy for awhile, during which he would stay sober, or some semblance of sober.

When Russ and I got to the station, Ed Lobess (Sgt) looked at the amount we had and decided to wake up Paul who was a trustee at the time. We backed the Travelall up to the wash rack, by the pumps (scene of an infamous shoot out) and Paul was going to empty all the bottles down the drain and dispose of the bottles and cans in the dumpster.

After processing all of our tickets and paperwork we went out to see if we could park the unit yet, and what did we find. Bent over the wash rack drain was this grown man crying, having to pour out all of this booze that he formally had been able to enjoy so much down a drain. This had to be an excellent example of cruel and unusual punishment.

Paul made up for this incident by finding a bottle of bourbon tagged as evidence and abandoned in the reporting room sometime later. He took it to the juvenile detention area and consumed a large portion of it. His indiscretion was discovered when his loud renditions of some drinking songs were overheard in the WC’s office late that night. 

In their great wisdom they decided not to arrest and prosecute Paul for this breach because he hadn’t finished his painting assignment for this sentence.