# Officer Down: Brent Clearman - [Oakland, California]



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Calif. officer killed by speeder*

*Officer Down: Brent Clearman* - [Oakland, California]

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ODMP
Biographical Info*
*Age:* 33
*Additional Info:* Officer Brent Clearman had served with the California Highway Patrol for 16 months. He is survived by his wife.
*I**ncident Details*

*Cause of Death:* Clearman died from injuries sustained when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. *Date of Incident:* August 5, 2006

*Calif. officer killed by speeder*
By Kristin Bender and Becky Bartindale
MercuryNews.com

California Highway Patrol officer Brent Clearman was a "spit and polish discipline" man who spent his whole life trying to fulfill a deep desire to help people and keep them safe.
Clearman, who died Sunday from injuries he suffered when he was hit Saturday by a driver who sped off on Interstate 880 in Oakland, was a decorated U.S. Marine Corps sharpshooter in Iraq before joining the CHP two years ago.
Other officers, wearing black armbands as they gathered at a news conference, appealed to the driver to come forward. Clearman, 33, was the seventh officer to die at work since September. ...

*Full Story: Calif. officer killed by speeder*


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

California High Patrol Bids Farewell to Officer Killed in Hit-and-Run

_The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
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In a tearful tribute that mixed country music, family snapshots and plenty of choked-up "Semper Fi" salutes, family, friends and more than 1,000 law enforcement officers bid farewell to California Highway Patrol officer Brent Clearman at a somber public memorial service on Thursday.
Clearman, 33, an Iraq war veteran in the Marine Corps and sniper specialist, was killed Saturday by a hit-and-run driver in Oakland. He was the seventh CHP officer to die in a year.
"This year's been very painful for me and this organization. We've lost a lot of good people. One of them was Brent Clearman," CHP Commissioner Mike Brown, who swore-in Clearman in April 2005, told the crowd gathered for Clearman's memorial service at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord. "Let us remember Brent and make his loss mean something. And let us pray it doesn't happen again."
Clearman, who lived in Concord, joined the CHP after serving in Iraq. Friends remembered him as a soft-spoken, hard-working and dedicated man who always went a step beyond his duty.
"Brent was a firm believer that if you sweat more in training, you bleed less in war," said his longtime friend Mario Galvez, a fellow Marine and CHP officer.
Capt. Jim Leonard of the CHP's Oakland office agreed.
"Brent would think this (service) was a waste of time and we should all be training right now," he said.
Clearman grew up in Ocean Park, Wash., with his parents and four sisters. In 1991, he enlisted in the Marines, where he graduated from Basic Sniper School and won the High Shooter Award. He was later named Sniper Platoon Sergeant.
In 1997 he served as an instructor at the Marine Corps' Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport (Mono County), specializing in rope work, climbing, skiing and avalanches, and was the lead instructor for mountain sniping.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he was deployed to Kuwait, where he crossed into Iraq with his battalion.
After his tour of duty, he returned to the U.S. and taught sniper skills to law enforcement agencies for five years. He joined the CHP academy in 2004.
His peers said it was no surprise Clearman chose Oakland to start his law enforcement career.
"Many (CHP officers) would be happy to work in a nice quiet part of the state, but not Brent," said his friend and fellow Marine, Art Scotto, an FBI agent in Los Angeles. "He narrowed his choices to Oakland and south L.A. He loved a challenge."
Clearman excelled in drunken driving arrests, in one case issuing 31 DUIs in a month.
He once prevented a catastrophic accident when a turned-around driver charged at 65 mph toward oncoming traffic on Interstate 80, and Clearman rammed the errant car and took the driver into custody.
"He placed himself in great danger," Leonard said. "There is no doubt in my mind that the world is a better place because of Brent Clearman."
Clearman's wife, Cathy, sat surrounded by family and friends near the front of the pavilion. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and other dignitaries also attended.
Clearman's coffin, draped with an American flag, rested on stage and was flanked by two officers, heads bowed. The stage was filled with flowers beneath a large screen showing slides of Clearman -- as a sheepish blond toddler, a kid proudly holding up a fish, a somber-faced Marine and as a civilian skiing, backpacking, kissing his wife.
His friend Galvez choked back tears as he told a story about Clearman helping to build a playhouse for Galvez' daughter.
"Brent was a humble man and a selfless man," he said. "We will never forget."
The driver who ran into Clearman on Saturday, Russell Rodrigues, 47, of Oakland, did not enter a plea to hit-and-run charges at an arraignment on Thursday. He will reappear in court on Aug. 23.
The court lowered his bail from $20,000 to $10,000, Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Tom Rogers said.
Rodrigues, who worked as a clerk and jail technician for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department for 20 years before resigning under pressure 2 1/2 years ago, turned himself in on Monday after police launched a statewide manhunt. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Clearman is survived by his wife of six years, Cathy; parents William and Carol; sisters Ann, Tara, Julie and Amy; and several nieces and nephews.
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AP Photo/Benjamin Sklar

A funeral procession for CHP Officer Brent Clearman is lead from funeral services on Aug. 10 in Concord, Calif.


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