DEVONSHIRE COPS WEAR HEARTS ON THEIR SLEEVES.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

NORTHRIDGE - Every veteran cop will tell you the same thing. Don't take the job home with you. Leave it at the station.

Sometimes, though, you just can't. And, sometimes, that's a good thing.

A little girl may be getting her college education paid for because Los Angeles Police Department Devonshire Division Officers Ernest Jimenez and Richard Sauer couldn't leave their jobs at the station.

On Saturday, Jan. 20, at 8:42 a.m. at the intersection of Tampa Avenue and Parthenia Street in Northridge, the officers were among five police units responding to a horrendous car accident.

A man driving a pickup truck going about 90 mph had run a red light and hit a small car broadside - killing its driver, Judith Lopez, and her 8-year-old daughter, Beatric.

Valley Traffic Division Detective Jamie Weaver said Wednesday that an investigation has determined that the driver, who was treated for minor injuries and released, was having a seizure at the time of the crash.

He was not arrested, and the case is being forwarded to the City Attorney's Office for further review, she said.

Also in the back seat of the small car, which was crushed like an accordion, was Jamie Lopez, 6. No one at the scene that day - not police, firemen or paramedics who responded - gave this little girl they pulled from the car with the Jaws of Life much chance of making it to Northridge Hospital Medical Center alive.

``There was just so much physical trauma that inside our hearts we knew the odds were slim she would make it,'' Sauer said.

So, when Jimenez and Sauer were given the job of notifying next of kin, it was three deaths, not two, they had on their minds when they knocked on the door of the Lopez girls' grandparents.

``It's the worst duty in the world,'' Jimenez said Wednesday, still having a tough time talking about the accident.

A 16-year-old veteran, Jimenez has two kids at home who are just about the same ages as the Lopez girls. Sauer and his wife, who is eight months pregnant, are just about to have their first child.

``It's the first thing you think about, the first faces you see in your mind's eye,'' Jimenez said. ``Your own kids.''

So when they got to the hospital with the grandparents and found Jamie was hanging on, fighting for her life, they did something they didn't normally do. They took their jobs home with them.

``You realize you can lose everything in an instant,'' Jimenez said. ``Everyone you love and cherish. My wife was a police officer for five years prior to staying at home to be a mother, so she understood what I was going through.

``I know it may sound weird, but it was just so nice to get home and see my kids alive, waiting to give me a hug.''

The next day, he and Sauer did something they've been doing just about every day since - they paid Jamie Lopez a visit in the hospital before going home to their own families.

``I respect these officers so much, and everybody who has helped keep my little girl alive,'' said Jamie's father, Martin Lopez.

Jamie is out of intensive care now and recovering from her broken bones and lacerations in the pediatric unit at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

``She finally woke up the Wednesday after the accident and asked for her mommy,'' Lopez said. ``We didn't have the guts to tell her.

``We kept changing the subject, trying to avoid telling her that her mother and sister died. It was only after their funeral that we finally told Jamie.

``She took the news maturely, but some days are pretty tough,'' he says. ``She grows quiet and wants to be left alone. She misses them.''

Back at the Devonshire Division station, Jimenez and Sauer could see the same thing. This little girl was having a tough time emotionally.

``Not only had she suffered so much physical trauma, but she also had the emotional trauma of losing her mother and sister,'' Sauer said. ``We started thinking about some way to help her.''

The other officers in the station talked about chipping in for some flowers or a doll, but Jimenez and Sauer thought it should be more.

``One of the officers joked and said why don't you send her to college?'' Jimenez said. ``We thought, hey, that's not impossible.''

No, it's not. Everyone at the station kicked in $50 each, and a college trust fund was started.

The money won't take away the physical and emotional scars this little girl will carry with her the rest of her life, but it will give her a shot at a brighter future.

``As a police officer, you see some terrible things out there on the streets, and there never seems to be any good being derived from it,'' Jimenez said. ``We just wanted to do something good.''

So a couple of good cops took their job home with them.

They started something big - and you can help, too, by sending a check to the Jamie Lopez Trust Fund, Bank of Granada Hills, 10820 Zelzah Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344.

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Photo:

(color) Jamie Lopez, 5, is asleep Thursday when her two favorite visitors, LAPD Officers Richard Sauer, left, and Ernest Jimenez, come to see her in the hospital.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer