DEPUTY'S VALOR SETS A RECORD; SAUGUS MAN FIRST TO EARN HIGHEST DECORATION TWICE.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

A Saugus man became the first Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy to receive two Medals of Valor - the department's highest award - for rescuing a person from a burning vehicle, then doing it again less than a month later.

Deputy Dale Ryken, who works at the Century Station in Lynwood, was driving to work on March 20, 1997 when he saw a burning vehicle and stopped to rescue its unconscious occupant.

Then on April 14, 1997, he and Deputy Timothy Cooper, a Valencia resident, rescued a woman trapped inside another burning vehicle. They cut her seat belt and pulled her from the flames.

``Ryken received two medals. It's never been done in the history of the Sheriff's Department,'' Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Elsa Avila said after Sheriff Lee Baca presented the medals during a ceremony at the Wilshire Grand Hotel and Centre in Los Angeles. ``His parents were crying. It was nice.''

Ryken, Cooper, Deputy Douglas Lloyd of Valencia and Deputy Jonathan Melville of Canyon Country were among 22 deputies receiving awards at the Sheriff's Department's annual banquet.

Lloyd, Robert Farkas and Steven Brown received Medals of Valor for saving a woman who had been taken hostage by her gun-wielding estranged husband. Lloyd and the others were recognized for their actions of April 25, 1998, when they engaged in a shootout with an ex-convict who had kidnapped his estranged wife from the Agua Dulce home where she had been staying.

When Mark Kuklok, 31, returned with the woman to his Acton home, he found deputies waiting for him. In a four-wheel drive vehicle, he led them on a short pursuit along dirt roads before stopping on a hillside, authorities said.

Emerging from the truck, Kuklok fired at the deputies, who fired back and hit Kuklok at least once. He fled and hid in some bushes, authorities said.

The officers rescued the woman from the floor of the truck, then sent in a police dog to locate Kuklok. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

One of the deputies was hit by a bullet during the shootout, but his bulletproof vest saved him.

Melville was working in a Los Angeles County jail June 29, 1996 when he and two other deputies rescued a kitchen worker who was taken hostage at knifepoint by an inmate who was demanding his release.

Melville, Tommy Carter of Lancaster and Erick Doepking of Acton were awarded Gold Meritorious Conduct Medals, and Palmdale Deputies Anthony Gunn and John Ebert received Silver Meritorious Conduct Medals for other actions.