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ULTIMATE PIG ROAST
4 retired Manteca Police chiefs on hot seat
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Manteca Police Sgt. Joe Ahuna — who is a roaster and served with the four retired police chiefs that are being roasted for a good cause on March 7 — is shown sitting in front of, from left retired chiefs Nick Obligacion, Charlie Halford and Dave Bricker in front of the American Legion Post Hall 249. A fund to modernize the hall will benefit from the roast.

Expect Dave Bricker at the upcoming Ultimate Pig Roast to get a few digs about being who “Dukes of Hazard” producers modeled Sheriff Rosco Purvis Coltrane after when it comes to driving skills of law enforcement officers.

The crash prone Sheriff Rosco has nothing on Bricker who believes he holds the Manteca Police Department record for the number of patrol crash vehicles in a given year — seven.

“I was a car wrecking son of a gun,” Bricker recalled.

Bricker is one of four retired Manteca Police Department police chiefs that are the subject of a roast Thursday, March 7, that will benefit the American Legion Post 249 building fund.

“They sent me to driving instructor school after that,” Bricker said. “Mind you it was driving instructor school. The department figured since I knew all the ways to drive wrong (in a pursuit) I’d know how to teach others what not to.”

Roasters will include master of ceremonies and retired community service officer Rex Osborn along with Manteca Police Sgt. Joe Ahuna, retired East Union JROTC instructor Carl Knutsen, former Mayor Steve DeBrum, and Give Every Child a Chance Director of Community Outreach. The other  retired police chiefs are Willie Weatherford, Charlie Halford, and Nick Obligacion.

Halford will tell you “Bricker” couldn’t back up worth a darn.”

Weatherford was police chief from 1987 to 1994, Halford from 1997 to 2008, Bricker from 2008 to 2011, and Obligacion from 2012 to 2017. Weatherford, Bricker, and Halford were all hired by the late police chief Leonard Taylor while Obligacion was hired by Weatherford.

Expect all four retired chiefs — each noted for their sense of humor — to return fire on their roasters and each other with zingers of their own.

Bricker — along with Halford — was in on one of the most interesting bank robbery arrests in the annals of Manteca Police history.

The two had been restricted to light duty at the office due to injuries. Halford had been accidently shot in the knee by a fellow officer while training on the shooting range while Bricker had sustained a shoulder/arm injury.

They were both on their lunch break and had just finished dining at a restaurant when dispatch broadcast that a Manteca bank had been robbed and the suspect had fled in a Yellow Cab taxi.

As they were starting to drive back toward the office, they spotted the cab, and conducted a high-risk traffic stop with guns drawn.

“We made the arrest pointing our guns,” Bricker said. “Charlie was moving with a noticeable limp and I had my arm in a sling.”

They could tell of other crimes that are in themselves a tad funny such as the time a Manteca council candidate robbed Stockton Savings during the campaign and later used the defense he was being politically prosecuted by the district attorney’s office and the repeat bank robber.  The former had robbed the Union Bank branch inside the East Yosemite Avenue Save Mart two weeks in a row, both times on a Friday at 10 a.m. Detectives arrested the culprit after staking out the bank on a Friday at 10 a.m. a week after his second robbery.

Joe Waltman’s Touch of Class will cater the event taking place at the Manteca Senior Center, 295 Cherry Lane. The entrees include sliced pork tenderloin with apple sauce and slice ham with pineapple. Sides include garlic red potatoes or rice pilaf, green beans with diced tomatoes/onion/bacon/mushroom, green salad, and Hawaiian sweet bread.

The $30 tickets are available at the Manteca Chamber of Commerce, American Legion Hall, and Tipton’s Stationery. Tickets can also be obtained by calling George Terry at 209-823-5665 or Art Smith at 209-239-1340.

There will only be 250 tickets sold.

Platinum sponsors are Raymus Homes, South San Joaquin Irrigation District, and Assemblyman Health Flora. The Central Valley Association of Realtors is a gold sponsor. Casino Real, Manteca SAFE (Seniors Aiding Fire Effort), Manteca Council of the Central Valley Association of Realtors, Manteca Dental Group, American Petroleum & Convenience Stores Association of the Central Valley and Sunrise Kiwanis are silver sponsors. Golden Valley Federal Credit Union, F&M Bank, Manteca Dental Group, Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis, and the Steve DeBrum family are bronze sponsors.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com