BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: June 23, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 159 (Chesbro) - As Introduced: June 10, 2014
SUBJECT : Deputy Sheriffs Deeds and Del Fiorentino memorial
highways
SUMMARY : Designates portions of two state highways in honor of
two deputy sheriffs who were killed in the line of duty.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Designates a portion of State Highway Route 1 and a portion of
State Highway Route 116 in Sonoma County as the Deputy Sheriff
Merrit W. Deeds Memorial Highway.
2)Designates a portion of State Highway Route 1 in Mendocino
County as the Deputy Sheriff Ricky Del Fiorentino Memorial
Highway.
3)Requests that the Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
determine the cost of appropriate signs showing these special
designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways, including the installation and
maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown, but the measure requests that Caltrans
only erect the appropriate signage upon receiving donations from
nonstate sources covering the cost.
COMMENTS : This bill designates the portion of Highway 1 at
Jenner and Highway 116 east to its intersection with Austin
Creek Road in Sonoma County as the Deputy Sheriff Merrit W.
Deeds Memorial Highway. Deputy Sheriff Deeds was a graduate of
Healdsburg High School and Sacramento State University who
served in Vietnam in the 81st Airborne Infantry Division. He
graduated from the Alaska State Trooper Academy and worked as an
Alaska State Trooper before returning to his native Sonoma
County, where he was hired by the sheriff's office as a summer
deputy.
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Only hours after learning he was to become a permanent full-time
deputy sheriff for Sonoma County, Deputy Sheriff Deeds was shot
and killed while patrolling Route 116 near Jenner. He had
stopped to talk with three men who were parked on the side of
the road when the driver of the vehicle fired two shots at him,
the second of which was fatal. Reserve Deputy Rex Nance, who
was off duty, stopped to assist and Deputy Sheriff Deeds was
able to warn him that the driver had a gun, possibly saving
Reserve Deputy Nance's life. Deeds was survived by his wife and
two small daughters.
This bill additionally designated the portion of Highway One in
Mendocino County between milepost markers 62.0 southbound and
65.0 northbound as the Deputy Ricky Del Fiorentino Memorial
Highway. Del Fiorentino was a native of Napa who attended the
University of Oklahoma and the Napa Valley College Policy
Academy. He started his law enforcement career with the
Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, serving from 1988 to 1990,
and then worked for the Fort Bragg Police Department from 1990
to 2000. He returned to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office in
2000.
On March 19, 2014, Deputy Sheriff Del Fiorentino responded to a
shooting in Cleone, a small community a few miles north of Fort
Bragg. He spotted the suspect vehicle stopped in the roadway in
a residential area and was immediately ambushed by the suspect,
who fired numerous rifle rounds into Del Fiorentino's patrol
vehicle, killing him. Seconds later the suspect fired on a Fort
Bragg Police Lieutenant, who then killed the suspect. Del
Fiorentino was survived by his wife, five children, and three
grandchildren.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Mendocino County Sheriff's Office (sponsor)
Sonoma County Sheriff's Office (sponsor)
Counties of Mendocino and Sonoma
Opposition
None on file
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Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093