Long Arm of Law Legs One Out for Special Olympics

By CHRIS CHI

June 26, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

About 200 law enforcement officers ran a relay across Ventura County in a sweat-soaked workout Thursday to celebrate Special Olympians.

A precursor to this weekend’s Special Olympics Summer Games at UCLA, the local leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run spanned the county, uniting prosecutors, sheriff’s deputies and other peace officers in support of disabled athletes.

The local leg, which ended at the Los Angeles County line on Pacific Coast Highway about lunchtime, capped a spring of volunteerism.

For the past few months, police have sold T-shirts and waited tables at local restaurants, collecting nearly $11,000 to fund athletic programs for the disabled.

Covering 65 miles of county roadways Thursday, officers were joined at points by several of the 100 local Special Olympians scheduled to compete this weekend.

“What it says is that just because you’re disabled doesn’t mean you’re unable,” said Bob Martin, director of the county’s Special Olympics program. “You can participate in sports, and you can succeed.”

The county chapter of the Special Olympics provides training and coaching at 55 parks, schools and gyms. The whole point, Martin said, is to give people with disabilities a chance to play sports, without pressures that come in schools or city leagues.

But that doesn’t mean the training isn’t rigorous or that nobody stands out.

Take Thomas Smith, a developmentally disabled Ojai man who can run three miles in less than 18 minutes. He will compete in the 1,500 meters this weekend, Martin said.

“He’s so smooth and fluid,” said Martin of Smith, 18, who was busy with high school graduation activities and couldn’t run Thursday. “You can see, yes, he has a disability, but he certainly has ability.”

Officers from across Southern California take part in the torch run, with some coming north from the Mexican border and others heading south from San Luis Obispo.

Locally, the run began Wednesday night near the Rincon. There, district attorney’s investigators received the torch from Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies. They carried it along the Pacific Coast Highway, covering 13 miles to downtown Ventura.

Some investigators went the distance, while other colleagues joined in for shorter stretches.

“There’s a guy in our office who hasn’t run for three months,” said Dave Saunders, a district attorney’s investigator who ran what amounts to half a marathon in about two hours.

“He ran four miles and gutted it out, so he’s probably very sore today. But it’s not a race, it’s about camaraderie.”

The relay resumed Thursday morning, with Ventura police officers taking over after a brief ceremony at City Hall. It continued through Oxnard and back onto the Pacific Coast Highway. On the highway, law enforcement officers from Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley heading south on surface streets eventually intersected with west county officers.

Among the Special Olympians to run Thursday was Ian Eaton, 29, a Ventura man with cerebral palsy. Eaton thrust the torch high above his head on the steps of City Hall.

“Ian lives around the block from me, and he always catches me when I’m doing my yardwork,” Ventura Police Sgt. Bryan Roberts said, stretching before his run.

“We talk about the run throughout the year, and he gets a big smile on his face. It means a lot to him, that law enforcement is involved.”