Slain Officer’s Medals Returned

In a painfully symbolic gesture, the parents and widow of slain Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Peter John Aguirre Jr. have returned distinguished service medals given in his memory.

Their act was a protest of the decision by the peace officers association to give Aguirre the award instead of a Medal of Valor. In tears, Aguirre’s father explained Thursday how his family had prayed over his son’s grave and decided to return the Distinguished Service Award given to them at a ceremony held Saturday by the Peace Officers Assn. of Ventura County. The countywide association is made up of peace officers from all agencies in the county.

“After the ceremony, I looked over the booklet that explained about the award and the group,” said Peter John Aguirre Sr. “And you know they’ve given the Medal of Valor to two dogs . . . I was very upset for my boy. I went to the cemetery and prayed. I prayed over Peter’s grave.”

On Thursday night, the association’s 16-member board of directors met to discuss the matter, board member Cmdr. Bob Gonzales said.

*

“We obviously hope we can do something to help heal the wounds opened up by this whole thing,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales expected the group would make a unified statement Friday.

Aguirre, a 26-year-old rookie deputy and father of a young daughter, was shot and killed July 17 after responding to a domestic disturbance call in Meiners Oaks.

“We could have this whole house covered with medals and it wouldn’t bring back our son,” said Aguirre’s father. “But it hurts that the people that are supposed to be Peter’s peers did not recognize his sacrifice.”

At Saturday’s awards ceremony, the association presented two Medals of Valor, one to Aguirre’s partner, Deputy James Fryhoff, for his role in arresting the man who shot Aguirre.

After the ceremony, Fryhoff and Aguirre’s father embraced.

“He told me he was really sorry and we cried and hugged each other for a long time,” Aguirre’s father said.

Contacted at the Ojai Station where he and Aguirre worked, Fryhoff said he did not want to comment on the matter.

“This obviously has affected me greatly,” was all he would say.

The group gave Aguirre the newly created Distinguished Service Medal, but did not believe his actions met the criteria for the Medal of Valor. That award requires that deputies show “Extraordinary bravery, above and beyond the call of duty, where risk of life actually existed and the officer was aware of such risk; where such failure to take action would not justify censure.”

*

It is not the first time the association has chosen not to award the medal to peace officers who died in the line of duty.

Oxnard Police Officer James Rex Jensen Jr., who was accidentally shot by a fellow officer March 13, 1996, during a botched drug raid, did not receive the medal. Neither did California Highway Patrolman David Copleman, killed in a traffic accident Nov. 18, 1990; nor Oxnard Police Officer John A. Adair, killed in October 1980 after responding to a domestic disturbance call.

On the day he died, Aguirre and three other deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call.

When they arrived, Aguirre went to the door of the home, where he was met by a distraught woman. When he walked past the woman, her estranged husband, Michael Johnson, emerged from the shower with two handguns and fired at Aguirre. The rookie deputy never got his gun out of its holster.

Johnson was arrested and is awaiting trial on murder charges. His defense attorneys have not contested that he shot Aguirre.

On Thursday, Aguirre’s father said the family is planning to go to Sacramento and Washington in May, when their son will be recognized for valor by both a state and national law enforcement organization. He said they were devastated by what they believe is a slight against the honor of their son.

*

Aguirre’s parents expressed their anger in a strongly worded and emotional letter sent Wednesday to Deputy Robert Quesada, the outgoing president of the association. A copy of the letter was also sent to President Clinton, whom the family believes will be at the Washington ceremony that will honor Aguirre.

“Bravery above and beyond the call of duty,” his parents said in the letter, “. . . exemplifies Peter’s every action the night of July 17, 1996.” On Monday, Sheriff Larry Carpenter chastised the association in a newsletter sent to the department.

“If the Peace Officers Assn. of Ventura County could not find valor in the life of Deputy Peter Aguirre Jr., then they shall never find it,” Carpenter wrote.

Carpenter would not comment on the matter Thursday, saying through a spokesman that he wanted to spare the family further pain.

In response to the reaction from family members and Carpenter, the association’s new president, Oxnard Police Officer Gino Rodriguez, met Thursday with Aguirre’s widow, Dina Aguirre.