Deputy Is Busy, So Woman Uses His Radio to Get Help

When Valerie Jacoby saw a wild-eyed “little twig bean of a man” slug a deputy sheriff and throw him to the ground on a Moorpark highway Wednesday, she ran to the officer’s empty patrol car, got on the microphone and began radioing for help, she said.

“You can imagine how shocking it was to hear an unexpected voice over the radio yelling for help,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Larson.

Jacoby, 27, a Moorpark resident, said she was returning from a visit to her parents in Simi Valley about 5 p.m. when she saw a car spin and fall about 20 feet down an embankment on the other side of the highway. Jacoby, a housewife, was headed for the scene to help when she saw the accident victim run off, with a deputy sheriff chasing him.

The man ran into traffic and was hit by a car, she said. “He was lying in the middle of the street when the police officer got to him,” Jacoby said. “All of a sudden, he just went into a frenzy, saying all kinds of words, cussing, spinning around in a circle. It was like he just went insane.”

When Deputy Ron Greene--described by Jacoby as “pretty hefty”-- tried to calm him, the man began jabbing the officer in the eyes and pulling his hair, Jacoby said. “He had the officer’s head like a football and was grabbing and pinching him.” She yelled for a second officer who had been driving behind Greene. As he went to help Greene, he asked Jacoby to radio the station for assistance.

She had never used a police radio before, Jacoby said. “I just grabbed it, pressed it and yelled into it. I can’t even remember what I said, because I was so nervous. I just wanted to get the guy off the police officer.”

Within minutes four sheriff’s deputies and two paramedics arrived to subdue the man.

Deputies later identified him as Glen Plaser, 32, of Simi Valley and said he was under the influence of PCP, or phencyclidine, Larson said.

“When the officer arrived the guy just went bananas,” Larson said. “It really took the officer by surprise. Imagine expecting an accident victim and somebody just jumps up and starts fighting with you.”

Greene was treated at Los Robles Medical Center for a concussion and released. Plaser suffered minor cuts and scrapes, Larson said.

Larson said the Sheriff’s Department, grateful to Jacoby for her help, will suggest to the county Board of Supervisors or the Moorpark City Council that they commend her for bravery.

“I think this was fantastic,” Larson said. “It’s not real often that you have citizens that stop and help, especially when an officer is fighting with someone. To actually get involved in a physical altercation is rather unusual.”

Plaser, charged with being under the influence of PCP and assaulting an officer, was in custody at the Ventura County Sheriffs’ Station in lieu of $5,000 bail.