Called Hero by Backers, Fire Captain Free on Bail

Declaring the defendant a hero, not a criminal, seven Ventura County firefighters joined the children of veteran fire Capt. William Elliot Handy on Tuesday to plead that his bail on drug and weapons charges be lowered.

The supporters could not persuade Superior Court Judge Allan Steele to reduce the $50,000 bail, but the judge decided not to grant a prosecution motion to raise it either.

Handy, who once pulled a 9-year-old boy from rushing floodwaters, later walked free from the County Jail after a bond company posted his bail.

Arraignment of the 48-year-old Newbury Park resident was postponed until Feb. 14. The county grand jury indicted Handy on Jan. 19, nearly four weeks after he was arrested on suspicion of selling drugs to a police informant. He is charged with three counts of selling methamphetamine, two counts of possessing explosives and one count of being under the influence of methamphetamine.

But the nearly two dozen supporters in court said the indictment overstates crimes the defendant might have committed. Since his arrest, Handy has sought treatment for a methamphetamine addiction, his lawyer said.

“We’re here for Elliot,” said fire engineer Colin Hurford, one of seven firefighters, including three other captains, at Tuesday’s hearing.

“He just made a few mistakes,” Hurford said.

Instead of dwelling on the criminal charges, the backers focused on some of the life-saving rescues they said the suspended fire captain had made. Shana Roe Handy-Flojo, the defendant’s 26-year-old daughter, also displayed numerous letters written to the judge in support of her father.

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The letters mostly came from family members and longtime friends. The writers generally described him as courageous, but not boastful.

“He’s got medals all over the house,” the daughter said outside court.

The family also has given the judge news clippings, including one showing pictures of Handy braving a swollen flood-control channel and rescuing a 9-year-old Thousand Oaks boy 21 years ago.

“He’s saved people out of fires, he’s saved people out of floods, he’s just a hero,” said the defendant’s 21-year-old son, William Handy.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles R. Roberts told the judge that Handy’s career as a firefighter should not come into play in the criminal case.

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“While Mr. Handy may have been a heroic figure in the past . . . that is not the current situation,” Roberts argued, asking that the bail be raised to $150,000 to keep him from fleeing.

“His tie to the community is weak, because they are getting ready to fire him,” said Roberts. “The retirement (pension) is weak, because he can take the entire sum in a lump and travel to Costa Rica and live like a lord. And his tie to the community is weak, since some (neighbors) consider him to be a substantial danger.”

Handy was arrested Dec. 21 for selling half an ounce of methamphetamine to a police informant at an Albertson’s grocery store parking lot on Reino Road in Newbury Park, authorities said.

Acting on a tip that Handy had sold drugs from his home, deputies also served a search warrant on the house and seized weapons.

Authorities said they found a napalm bomb under a bed in a steel ammunition box and a rocket-like device in the garage.