Northpinellas: Police award honors a wife and a rescue

CLEARWATER -- On a muggy day in July, Clearwater police officer John Bennett pulled the limp body of a 3-year-old boy out of the dank waters of a pond.

For all intents and purposes, the boy was dead. He had no pulse, no breath.

With one hand, Bennett lightly pushed on the boy's chest. The officer breathed into the boy's lungs. Nearly every officer on duty that day was glued to his or her radio, waiting for word from Bennett on the boy's condition.

Then Bennett came on the radio: "I've revived him."

In the background, the boy could be heard screaming and crying. But he was breathing. He was alive.

Six months later, Terry Zagone took a trip to New York City, where she went to the opera and rode in a limousine. The trip was paid for by friends, who also decked out her house with Christmas decorations, which greeted her when she returned from the trip on Dec. 16.

Six days later, Zagone died of lung cancer. She was 43.

Her friends had helped her fulfill her last wishes: To go to New York and to have a special Christmas.

Zagone was buried on Christmas Eve. She was survived by her son, her daughter and her husband, Joe, who is a Clearwater police sergeant.

Hundreds of officers paid their respects to Terry Zagone that day. As a waitress at Capogna's Dugout restaurant in Clearwater, where many officers eat lunch, she had served up meals for her husband's police brethren for 19 years.

She was at every police event. She was there to help if an officer was in need. She was at an officer's home if he or she was injured.

When she died, Clearwater police lost one of their own.

But on Saturday night something special was scheduled to happen, something thick with meaning for police officers whose lives and careers so frequently revolve around issues of life and death.

At a banquet at the Belleview Biltmore, Bennett was set to receive an award -- called the Guardian Angel Award -- that is named for Terry Zagone. The award will be given every year to an officer who pulls someone from the clutches of death.

But what makes the award so special to officers is that it is named for someone who breathed so much life into theirs.

"Terry was family to everybody here," said Officer T.J. Donnelly, president of the Clearwater Fraternal Order of Police lodge. "Listen to the name of the award, and how appropriate is it that he will get that? He brings a child back to life. How perfect is that? It's another way to keep Terry here with us."

The bottom of the plaque will read: "Great strength comes from the heart."

"That says a lot about Terry, about the kind of spirit she had," Donnelly said. "When you were with Terry, she made you feel like you mattered. She had a great love for these officers, for their families."

Donnelly said the Terry Zagone Guardian Angel Award is given by anonymous donors. Her husband presented the award at the banquet.

Though he has been off work since his wife's death, Sgt. Joe Zagone probably will return to duty soon, Donnelly said.

"He has 286 brothers and sisters out here who are all pulling for him and stepping up to the plate," Donnelly said. "Everybody's getting over it, but we're getting over it together."

Bennett also was chosen for the department's top honor, the Cornelius Award, at the banquet. The FOP's Officer of the Year also went to Bennett, who has worked at the department just more than a year. In fact, Bennett was a new officer when he saved the life of the boy.

Bennett responded to a missing child call that day, July 8, and found the boy in a nearby pond. Logan Barina had wandered out of a back door of his house, wearing only a diaper and a white T-shirt.

When Bennett saw the boy floating in the pond, he took off his gun belt and waded into the murky, muddy water. He pulled out the boy, began CPR and brought him back.

"Just six months on the job, and John Bennett addresses a life-and-death situation with the poise of a 20-year veteran," Police Chief Sid Klein said in prepared remarks.

"And because of John Bennett's professionalism, bravery and composure, a little boy will grow up to become a man," Klein added.

Three years earlier, Logan's brother, Devin, had died after falling into a swimming pool.

Donnelly said the FOP Award comes from fellow officers, who vote for the winner.

"This award means a little bit more because it's coming from the guys you work the streets with," Donnelly said. "You brought a kid back to life. That kid is going to be somebody someday specifically because of what John Bennett did."

The FOP also was to recognize several others at the banquet Saturday night:

Detective of the Year went to two investigators, Stephen Bohling and Clarence Calloway. Both led the effort to solve the May shooting death of Johnnie Michael Thomas. Over five months, the detectives developed enough evidence to persuade a grand jury to indict Eric M. Anderson, 27, on a first-degree murder charge in connection with Thomas' slaying.

"In the beginning, it was kind of a whodunit," Donnelly said. "They had to do a lot of follow-up, because people initially weren't talking. It was a puzzle they had to put together. They had to use a lot of finesse and a lot of skill."

Bohling has worked for the department for more than 11 years. Calloway retired recently after serving 20 years.

The lodge chose Lt. James Steffens as the department's top supervisor, an award he has won three times in the last six years. Steffens, a 14-year department veteran, is in charge of the department's special operations, including special weapons and tactics (SWAT), emergency response and the canine unit.

"The guy is a cop's cop. He's all about leadership and accountability," Donnelly said. "This a guy who any cop here would go through any door with. The guy is a true leader."

The department was to honor Margaret Jetton as its citizen of the year. A 30-year resident of the Wood Valley neighborhood, Jetton has led efforts to clip crime and revitalize her neighborhood. Nearly every police officer knows her.

"She's a pistol, a community activist," Donnelly said. "She doesn't just talk about what needs to be done. She gets out there and does it."

Donnelly, who was recently elected to his second term as lodge president, also was to be honored as lodge member of the year. Plaques also were to be given to outgoing lodge board members William Connell Jr. and Steven Sears.

Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com .

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