When a Cop’s in Trouble, the Word Gets Around

Ed Staniek has been retired from the Gardena Police Department for 25 years, now leading a quiet life in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville.

But, like a lot of career cops, he tries to keep in touch with the people he once worked with. The close-knit department, he says, was like family.

So when he learned through an old friend in the detectives bureau that his former partner, Det. Allan Otake, was, at age 49, in desperate need of a liver transplant, Staniek wanted to join efforts to help.

He had been Otake’s training officer when the young former reserve cop joined up in 1974, and they were partners until disability forced Staniek to retire in 1977. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but when Staniek contacted the gravely ill Otake earlier this year, “that feeling of special commitment between partners just came rushing back.”

In Gardena, fellow officers set about helping Otake fight a now mostly resolved battle with the city over workers’ compensation and retirement benefits.

Former cops, co-workers and other longtime friends began planning fund-raising benefits to help Otake, a single father rearing two sons. Hisham’s Towing in Gardena, which works with the Police Department, set up a trust fund and collected donations.

Family members and friends, including Gardena Det. Torie Alvarez, have tried to keep Otake’s spirits up through an ordeal that began more than two years ago, when the 28-year department veteran was found to have liver disease.

“It’s been an uphill battle for him, and now what he really needs is to get a liver. We’re all feeling a little helpless, but we want to try whatever we can,” Alvarez said last week as time seemed to be running out.

Otake and his physicians believe he contracted liver-destroying hepatitis C on the job, although Otake says he cannot single out a specific incident among the many times he could have come in contact with the blood of an infected person.

Last year he developed liver cancer, and he has undergone chemotherapy while awaiting a suitable liver donor.

None of his relatives or close friends met all the criteria--including having type O-positive blood and meeting health and age requirements--that would have enabled one of them to donate a section of liver.

That put Otake on a waiting list--with about 18,000 other people across the country in need of a liver--for a donated organ.

Staniek recalls Otake as possessing all the best traits for police work--intelligence, dedication, skill and experience--and a calm demeanor.

“He never lost his composure, even in the crisis situations, and I always knew I could count on him,” Staniek said.

“I know he is trying to be calm and in control now, but he has got to be feeling a lot of fear that he doesn’t want to show, especially to his boys.”

Staniek thought he could help by getting the word out about Otake’s plight. He wrote a poignant story and e-mailed it to police organizations and newspapers around the state.

The largest police officers association in the state promised to publish it its monthly magazine; several newspapers did stories, encouraging Staniek to keep up his publicity drive.

And the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recently began airing Otake’s story on its daily departmental broadcast.

“Allan is not asking for special treatment, or to have his name moved to the top of the list, but his family and friends are hoping that anyone with a recently deceased next of kin might specify that their liver be donated to him,” the message to all local law enforcement officers reads in part.

Otake, who was born in Japan but grew up in Gardena, was stoic about his circumstances and said last week he tries to keep his spirits up for the sake of his sons, Joey, 15, and Tony, 13. He has raised them alone since his marriage broke up when the boys were small.

“If it was just me alone in this world, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal for me to accept, but I want my boys to have their father,” Otake said.

As the boys grew, fishing trips replaced the “Mommy and Me” classes Otake attended when they were younger.

“We’ve always had a complete closeness,” added Otake, a reserved man who said he has been buoyed by the concern and offers of help once he overcame his reluctance to tell others of his plight.

“There’s no way I begin to thank them for all they have done. And my partner [Staniek], he really got the ball rolling in trying to find a liver for me,” Otake said.

Late Thursday afternoon, Otake got the call he had been waiting for--a donor had been found. Otake was to report right away for surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

But a fuel-tanker crash had shut down the freeway, and the St. Vincent’s medical team members rushing to Harbor UCLA Medical Center near Torrance to pick up the liver were stuck in traffic. They flagged down a police patrol car for a quick escort.

The department that saved the day? Gardena.