SAN GABRIEL VALLEY / COVER STORY : Mercy and Comfort on the Front Lines : Monrovia Police Chaplains Complement Officers by Ministering to the Needs of Victims and Families Suffering Loss and Tragedy

For 15 days, rescue teams searched Bailey Canyon Park for John Henderson and his 9-year-old son, Matthew, hikers who dis appeared during a flash flood in Sierra Madre in March, 1994.

As distraught family and friends waited and prayed, Stewart Levin and Donnie Williams waited and prayed with them.

“We just stayed and waited and comforted them,” Levin said. “We talked about life and death and the weather. . . . The point is, we were there for them.”

And when the bodies of the father and son were finally found, Levin and Williams grieved with them.

A sheriff’s sergeant had called Levin, 40, and Williams, 47, two chaplains with the Monrovia Police Department, to the scene so they could be with the family while officials continued their search.

The call from an outside agency was a sign that Monrovia’s volunteer program had gained wider recognition in law enforcement circles. Now 4 years old, the program was developed when budget crunches meant that police had little time to spend on the humane part of the job: breaking bad news, consoling, helping people get in touch with needed social services.

Levin and Williams have delivered death notifications to widows of suicide victims, ministered to victims of domestic violence and counseled police officers wrestling with divorce.

“Being a chaplain is a front row seat on life, to people who are in trouble, who need help right now,” said Levin, outreach minister for the Family Church of Monrovia.

The city’s seven volunteer clergymen--clad in bulletproof vests covered by Windbreakers with the word CHAPLAIN on the back--roam the streets with police officers, take turns wearing a beeper 24 hours a day and often jump out of bed in the middle of the night to respond to a crisis.

“The chaplains are at the front line when people need help, “ said Monrovia Police Chief Joseph A. Santoro. “They are trained counselors. This is an extension of their ministries.”

Williams, senior pastor at the Family Church of Monrovia, initially approached Santoro about implementing a chaplain program. A former gang member who had spent time in Monrovia’s jail cells as a youth, Williams wanted to foster better relations between the community and police.

“The purpose was to assist the community,” said Williams, an outgoing man who seems to know everyone in Monrovia, “and be a voice for community concerns.”

He found a receptive ear in Santoro.

“We wanted to improve the service in certain areas where we did not have the officers or personnel to provide good, quality service,” the chief said. The chaplains are able to follow up with families affected by crime and help them in ways the officers might not be able to, he said.

But the police chaplain program also helps the officers who typically are under a lot of stress and have high divorce and suicide rates, Levin said.

Sometimes, when the chaplains are out on patrol, the officers will begin to confide in the clergymen at their side, said Rev. William Ripley, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Monrovia. Commonly discussed topics are the stresses of the job and the personal strains that police work can place on the officer’s family.

But the officers always initiate the “God talk,” Ripley said, adding that it is not the intention of the chaplains to “Bible-thump the officers to death.”

Initially, some officers had reservations about sharing their patrol car with a chaplain, said Lt. Jerry Faulkner, the facilitator of the chaplain program. They were afraid that what they told the chaplains would get back to the chief, he said. But the officers now know better. “Nothing they have ever told the chaplains has ever gotten back to the chief,” Faulkner said.

The chaplains are required to go out on at least one four-hour ride-along a month and each is required to be on call 24 hours a day for a full week, every seventh week.

All of the chaplains receive basic police training, including how to use police radios and handle shotguns and weapons, if necessary. The chaplains are not armed but are required to wear bulletproof vests out on patrol. Levin and Williams also serve as reserve officers for the Monrovia Police Department.

Currently, all of the chaplains are Protestant men and all but Levin, who is a licensed minister, are ordained pastors.

But the department is seeking a rabbi and is speaking with a Catholic priest about the possibility of joining the force’s program. The department would like to represent the major denominations, Faulkner said, and female chaplains are sought as well.

Many of the officers have come to enjoy the chaplains’ company.

“The chaplains have a lot of resources we don’t have,” said Agent Phil Nelson, who welcomes having the clergy sit in his passenger seat.

Agent James Hunt echoes that sentiment.

On March 29, Hunt responded to a suicide with Sgt. Steve Cofield. Cofield decided to call Stewart Levin to help the man’s widow.

A 59-year-old man had hanged himself in his garage in the middle of the night, Hunt said. His wife woke up and found him but was not sure when the suicide occurred or whether he was still alive.

Cofield asked Levin to deliver the death notification.

Levin also contacted the chaplain at the Oklahoma military base where the woman’s 19-year-old son was stationed and asked him to deliver the news. Levin stayed with the woman until a family member arrived 3 1/2 hours later. A few days later, Levin and Williams went back to see how the woman was coping.

“She was real comfortable with us,” Levin said. “She wouldn’t let us go. She wanted to talk about what had happened.”

Having a chaplain at the scene makes an officer’s job a lot easier, Hunt said. The officer is concentrating on the crime scene and the victim, he said, whereas the chaplain can focus on helping the relatives.

“It really makes the whole situation a lot easier for us,” Hunt said. “All of the officers feel that way.”

Several months ago, Ripley accompanied a police officer to a home in Monrovia to tell a mother that her 37-year-old son had been stabbed to death. “The officer broke the news of (her son’s death) and after he had given her the specifics, he turned it over to me,” Ripley said. “I stayed with the family for about 45 minutes until friends or relatives arrived.”

Three days later, the woman called and asked if Ripley would perform the funeral service for her son.

“We complement the officers out in the field,” Ripley said. “They can’t take a death notification and turn it into ministering to the family.”

Judy Henderson, mother of the man who was killed with his son in the flash flood, remembers her first, painful meeting with Levin.

“Stewart came in that first night and said he was a chaplain. I knew then we were in deeper trouble than what I had hoped. I told him that (John and Matthew) couldn’t be gone. Stewart didn’t correct me,” she said.

The night rescue workers found Matthew’s shoe was devastating for the family, Judy Henderson said. “I knew then what I had to reconcile myself to. We were glad Stewart was there.

“When they found John, Stewart and Donnie were there so fast. They cried with us. What can you say about a hero? They were our heroes. They still are,” she said.

Henderson, 53, said Levin and Williams talked with family members, prayed with them, got answers to their questions--and knew when to just sit silently with them. The chaplains still call the family to see how they’re doing.

“I pray every day for Stewart and Donnie that they can continue to do for other families what they did for us,” she said.

Sometimes, it’s the police force that needs the help.

Three years ago, an 18-year-veteran of the police department suffered a heart attack and was found dead in his shower. His colleagues were devastated.

“This place fell apart until the chaplains came in and took over,” said Lt. Donald Lacher. One of the chaplains arranged the services, another presided over the funeral and others listened as officers mourned the death of their longtime friend.

But the chaplains have also been there for the department in happier times. They have presided over the weddings of two officers, have sent cards on officers’ birthdays, even cooked Christmas dinner for officers on duty.

“Being a chaplain is a commitment out of your own heart,” Williams said.

During a recent night on patrol, Levin, driving an unmarked detective car, waved to people in the street. As a reserve officer, he can take police cars out by himself and occasionally makes rounds in the community. Some people look away, but some wave back.

An hour after he begins his shift, Levin sees a man who has locked himself out of his car. Levin identifies himself as a police chaplain, pulls over and offers assistance.

Levin gets a hanger from a nearby supermarket and hands it to the stranded man, who unsuccessfully tries to capture the lock. After 10 minutes, Levin calls a police buddy with a Jimmy. Minutes later, K-9 officer David Cassidy pulls up with his dog, Ike, barking in the back seat. Soon, the Duarte man is able to get back in his car and drive safely home.

In the future, Levin said, that man might think of police as people who help, not harass.

“If we’re successful,” Levin said, “that guy is going to tell his friends, ‘The other night, the weirdest thing happened. That guy gave me a hand.’ ”