2 Valley Women Among Honorees for Courage

Two Valley women, who each single-handedly halted a brutal beating in separate incidents last September, were among eight citizens honored Friday for their heroic actions.

Marsha Bender, 47, of Woodland Hills, and Treva Tegtmeier, 35, of Van Nuys, were presented awards by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti at the 14th annual Courageous Citizens luncheon at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles.

Bender interrupted a man who was savagely assaulting his wife in a car. She then stayed to console the victim and her two young children as they waited for police and helped them find temporary shelter, said Victoria B. Pipkin, communications director for the district attorney’s office.

Bender, who said she, too, had escaped an abusive relationship, testified during the trial of David Meshell, who was convicted of spousal abuse and is now in prison.

Tegtmeier, an actress, was driving home alone from a playhouse in North Hollywood where she had performed when she saw two young men viciously beating and kicking another man. She stopped and shined her car headlights on the attackers while calling police from a cell phone.

One of the attackers approached Tegtmeier’s car, which was locked with the windows closed, but he fled with the other assailant when she backed up.

The assault was triggered when the victim, a 47-year-old man, confronted the two men as they scrawled graffiti, Pipkin said. Jose Medellin Campos and Luis Salazar pleaded guilty and are in jail.

Six other winners honored from throughout the city include a man who was stabbed as he halted a carjacking but still chased and held the suspect for police, and a young woman armed only with a baseball bat who stopped another beating.

More than 300 people attended the honors luncheon, which was also sponsored by the Rotary Club of Los Angeles.