A SAD GOODBYE; FAMILY, CO-WORKERS REMEMBER DEPUTY'S STRENGTH, DEVOTION.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

Respected as one of the guys, loved as a daughter and wife, Senior Deputy Lisa Whitney was remembered Monday by hundreds of law enforcement personnel who paid tribute to Ventura County's first female officer to be buried with full police honors.

More than 800 mourners packed the First Baptist Church of Oxnard where dozens of bouquets spilled over the altar in honor of the popular deputy. She was killed last week in a traffic crash as she pulled out of the Sheriff Department's headquarters.

From Sheriff Bob Brooks, who said the county was a safer place because deputies like her were on the beat, to her husband, who said ``she was a great person and a great cop,'' the 28-year-old deputy with the ready smile was missed by many.

``My heart is filled with sadness and I am lonely,'' said her husband, Oxnard police Sgt. Scott Whitney, who said the couple had just moved into their new home a week ago. ``I know you are in a better place and we will be together again.''

Scott Whitney told the overflow crowd that he had met Lisa eight years ago when the two were in the training academy, and found in her a partner who taught him to open up, and who colleagues said taught him to dance.

He said he was proud of her July promotion to the detective unit to work sex crimes, hopeful it would be a safer job than patrol. He tried to persuade her not to go to work when she was called in at 2 a.m. last weekend, their first night in their new home.

``She said, Scott, If I don't do it, who's going to do it?'' he told the crowd.

That determination and commitment earned Lisa a reputation that made her known across the department and won her Officer of the Year honors in 1996, when she worked in patrol.

Lisa Whitney was killed Wednesday evening when her vehicle was hit broadside at an intersection where the traffic lights were out, following a power outage, as she left the office to conduct field interviews, officials said.

Ventura resident Tanya Dawn Pittman, the driver of the pickup truck that hit Whitney's department-issued unmarked car, suffered internal injuries in the collision and was treated at a local hospital, officials said. An investigation is pending.

The Rev. David Laughrey, who officiated at the young couple's wedding five years ago, told mourners that such strength carried from her professional life to her commitments to husband and family, including her parents, Charles and Janice Bryant of Fillmore.

Lisa Whitney's short life, Laughrey told mourners, should not be measured by its quantity, but by the quality with which she lived it.

``The important thing to know is that while we are here to live our life fully, like it really matters, like Lisa did,'' Laughrey said. ``And to know that when you leave, you will be missed.''

Among those who might miss Lisa the most, Senior Deputy Elmo Sheeran said during the morning service, is Duke, the horse she rode on mounted patrol and that friends said she would have made a house pet if it could have fit through the door.

``I can see Duke searching around today, looking for his partner,'' said Sheeran, who leads the mounted patrol unit. ``He will somehow know she has gone to heaven.''

Lisa had been riding since she was 4 years old, her mother said last week, and Sheeran said she rose through the ranks to become an often-requested officer for special detail. Even after a few falls, including one ``over the handlebars'' of the horse, she went on to become an instructor. Sheeran, choked up at times during the service, said that when he saw her in action he knew she would one day become his replacement.

``She was a professional in every sense of the word,'' he said. ``She was not only my co-instructor, she was my partner and my friend.''

As the mounted patrol led the funeral procession at Ivy Lawn Cemetery, where helicopters flew overhead and ``Taps'' was played, Duke walked behind the other deputies, without a rider.

A towering woman who friends said was 6 feet tall, Lisa was also bigger than life in the eyes of the children in her extended family and fellow officers who knew she was making history in the department.

Just a teen-ager when she started working as a clerk in the department after graduating from Fillmore High School, she entered the academy in 1989. She graduated and began working at 20.

She followed in the footsteps of her uncle, a retired east county sheriff's deputy, her mother said last week. She was promoted to senior deputy in 1997.

Fellow deputy Julie Smith wrote a poem for her colleague that was printed in memorial brochures and read at the funeral, about her friend she called ``Our Angel on Horseback,'' who achieved respect in a mostly man's job.

Young deputies like Denise Obuszewski knew of Lisa, calling her a ``great role model for females, excellent role model.''

Scott Whitney, too, knew that Lisa ``had to work doubly hard to earn the respect of her peers.''

But success seemed easy in many ways for the popular deputy, who was respected across law enforcement jurisdictions as one of their own.

``She was one of the guys,'' said California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Webster, who knew her from patrols in the Ojai area. ``She was just big and tough and held her own.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) (Ran in Simi and Conejo Editions only) The funeral motorcade for Senior Deputy Lisa Whitney, with full police honors, makes its way up Victoria Avenue in Ventura.

(2--Color in Simi and Conejo Editions only) A departmental honor guard carries sheriff's Senior Deputy Lisa Whitney's casket Monday.

(3--Color in Simi and Conejo Editions only) Lisa Whitney's husband, Scott, turns to a fellow officer for solace at his wife's funeral.

Evan Yee/Daily News