On Wednesday morning I was notified by the Patriot Guard Riders about the Georgia Law Enforcement Memorial Wall coming to Augusta for the unveiling of the name of Deputy James "JD" Paugh on the wall. I knew I wanted to attend. JD was a motor officer with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, Unit T-31. I didn't know JD well but we had met through our mutual passion for motorcycles and had rode together on a few Charity rides and at different Harley-Davidson events. Something inside me was telling me I had to be there.
My wife and I arrived early and just sat in the parking lot for awhile talking. There was a wave of emotions that washed over me as I watched officers from all over pull in. I'm strong. I can hide my emotions, except from my wife. She sees right through me. Without saying a word she squeezed my hand and gave me a look that said, "I understand," although I knew she really couldn't.
I've had friends die in the line of duty before, but something was different about this. It may have been the way he died. He didn't, and couldn't imagine, what he was riding into. He was off duty, heading home, just stopping to help someone he felt was in need. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something was definitely different and I felt drawn to this event. (You can read the article here: www.chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2011-10-23/strength-fort-gordon-soldier-killed-richmond-county-deputy-himself-0) Something was overpowering and different.
The ceremony was short but respectful. After it was over I went to get a closer look at the travelling Memorial and the name emblazoned there. Once again the emotions tried to show through, once again I was able to keep it to myself. I walked over and touched the name on the wall and bid a farewell to JD one last time.
As I looked at the wall one name suddenly jumped out at me. It grabbed me and for several seconds I was in a trance, just staring. The name was there. I knew when and how he died. He died serving the citizens of Richmond County, I knew he would never show it but with all his bluster I knew the heart inside this Deputy, I got the rare glimpse. In all my years as a Police Officer I never worked a day in my life with him in that Richmond County Patrol car, but I knew him. He was my partner, at least in spirit. He never knew it but he was my mentor and partner, a man I trusted, respected, and looked up to. I tried my best to show the same compassion while I was in Law Enforcement that he did. He never knew how much he taught me about police work without ever teaching me a thing. I stepped back and got my phone to take a quick photo of the name on the wall. As I took the picture a woman stepped up behind me and asked who's name I was photographing, as this one was away from JD's name. I couldn't speak, I just pointed. She introduced herself and said that her and her husband maintained the wall and it stayed in their yard when they weren't travelling with it. She asked if I was related to him and when I said I wasn't she asked if I would tell her how I knew him. Through the tears I was trying to hold back I was able to choke out the following about my life and that of Sgt John L. Francisco Sr. crossing at an early age.
When I was a teenager I had the "Need for Speed." It seemed every where I went I was wide open, whether in a car or on a motorcycle. This got me in quite a few brushes with the law. The first night I met Fransisco, I didn't really get to meet him at all, thank the Lord. I was headed south on Hwy 56 in front of T's. The road was a two lane then and they had just begun construction to make it a four lane highway. As I said I was travelling south, quickly. I don't know how fast I was going but I was well over the speed limit. I saw the Patrol Car as I passed it headed in the opposite direction and could see the smoke pouring off the tires as he did a 180 to come after me. I didn't need anymore trouble so I stood on the gas. I knew the area well and had a good lead so I was able to take a few side roads and sneak back home without him catching me. I left the car sitting for a few days and when no one came to the house looking for me I figured I could thank my lucky stars. A few weeks later I was involved in a minor accident in the Butler High School parking lot after school let out. I was showing off to the two girls with me when a car backed out of a parking spot into the drive. I hit it. Thank goodness no one was hurt but there was a lot of damage to both cars. I had someone call the police and this was the first time I met Franscisco face to face. He answered the call. As soon as he stepped out of the car he looked at me and said, "Well Taylor, I finally got you where you can't run." He then turned to the girl who's car I had hit and asked for her license and registration and I gave him mine. He told me, "That car'll run." I told him that it was really not too fast and he asked if I remembered outrunning him on 56 a few weeks earlier. How did he know who I was and how did he even get a good look at the car as fast and we passed each other that night? I told him that he must be mistaken, wasn't me. He told me to have a seat in the back of his patrol car. He shut the door and went about his work of doing the wreck report. All I could think sitting there was that I was on the way to jail. Once he was finished he talked to the young lady for a minute and told her she could go. He then came over to me. He opened the door and had me step out. He said that he couldn't "prove" it was me that ran from him but knew that it was. He went on to explain that since the young lady backed out in front of me the accident would be shown as her being at fault. I started to feel better, then he dropped the hammer. He told me that he would be watching me and if I "so much as spit on the sidewalk" he would put me under the jail. He didn't say another word and just drove off leaving me standing there in the rain. The next day I borrowed a friends motorcycle to go to the gas station where I worked to get some jumper cables and try to get my car running again. I got them and just threw them over the gas tank and took off for home. I was coming down Lumpkin Rd. from 56 and about a hundred yards from 56 there was a railroad crossing with a stop sign. No one ever stopped at that sign, including me. The tracks sit about a foot higher than the road and it made a nice little ramp for a motorcycle and I went over it, as the kids say now, "Catching some good air." When I hit the ground I looked over and there was a county patrol car sitting between two buildings watching the stop sign. I saw the red light on the roof come on and all I could think about was Fransisco's warning the previous day. I was sure he had told everyone to watch for me and I couldn't take a chance. I kept my hand wide open on the throttle and down the road I went. A patrol car shouldn't be able to catch a good rider on a bike. A GOOD rider. There was a big difference between me and a good rider. I was more cocky than experienced. I turned across a yard off Lumpkin Rd where the branch library sits now and headed toward the rear of Butler High School. There were no fences like there are today and I had a clean shot. A quick look over my shoulder and I couldn't even see the patrol car. Too bad I was so busy looking for the car chasing me and not spending enough time watching what might be ahead. As I came out from behind the school stadium near Peach Orchard Rd and there was a deputy with a shotgun glaring at me. I don't think I ever touched the handle bars. I hit the brakes and put my hands way over my head stalling the bike. Going to jail is one thing, getting shot is a whole new story. As I kicked the kickstand down and leaned the bike onto it (Again without ever lowering my hands) the other patrol car pulled up and out stepped Franscisco with a grin a mile wide. I didn't have much butt to start with and by the time he finished chewing there wasn't anything left. I was only 17 and he said he wasn't going to take me to jail but I would pay dearly. He wrote me charges for 1) Destruction of private property 2) Destruction of public property 3) No motorcycle helmet 4) Running a stop sign and 5) Eluding and evading. Yep, he nailed me. Then to top it all off called my mom to bring someone to pick up the bike and he allowed her to take me home.
I called my Dad the next morning to try and borrow the money to pay the tickets. He said he knew the Sheriff and would see it he could help. He called me back a little later and told me that I had an appointment with the Sheriff at two o'clock that afternoon. He also told me he would meet me in the lobby about 15 minutes early and to dress nice and "Get a damn haircut." I was what was considered one of "them there damn hippies," since I had let my hair grow out.
I went straight to the barber shop, got a haircut, and dressed in the nicest casual clothes I had. The first thing the Sheriff said when he met me and we shook hands was, "Well, you look like a clean cut young man. Not like one of them damn hippies running all over the place." He talked to me awhile and told me to pay the $15 no helmet ticket and he would see the others weren't prosecuted if I didn't get in any more trouble within a year. Well for the next year I did everything I could to stay out of the eyes of the police. John would still stop me when he saw me and harass me a little. He did tell me that he had agreed with the Sheriff to drop the charges. Each time he would tell me that I was too good a kid and had too much going for me to keep living the way I was. He helped us take our drag racing off the streets. I started doing my drag racing at Windsor Spring or Jackson and my motorcycle riding off roads in the woods or on sanctioned tracks.
Shortly after I turned 18 I dropped out of High School and joined the Navy. I bought a new 1972 Nova SS after boot camp. After training as a Hospital Corpsman I was transferred to Beaufort, SC Naval Hospital. I was only 120 miles from home so every weekend I was off I was back in town and the old ways started creeping back in. I was making extra spending money street racing. And, as can be imagined, John Francisco had not forgotten who I was. Occasionally he would see me he'd pull me over. He'd ask me "Where are we racing tonight" or other questions about the things somehow he knew I was up too. Somehow though his demeanor was changing with me. He would sometimes he would let his guard down and smile and it seemed he was also becoming a friend. He continued telling me that I needed to turn my life around. One night he stopped me on the road behind Bush Field as I was headed toward the Lock and Dam. He started toward the car and noticed a girl with me and laughed. He said he knew what I was going down there for and it wasn't going to happen in his zone. He then laughed and told me to go to the old race track. Nobody would come out there bothering us. One night he was off duty and on his way home when I ran into him at a gas station. I paid for my gas and was getting a coke. He was behind me and told the clerk, "I got that." He bought one for himself and we walked out front where we sat on the front of my Nova and talked for a long time. He seemed truly interested in my life in the Navy and what I was doing. I had gotten married and had orders to train with the Marines before shipping out to Vietnam as a combat corpsman. He told me that night that he was proud of me and what I had accomplished. That alone kind of knocked my socks off and then capped it off by telling me that I should put the energy I have into working in Police work and that I'd make a fine cop when I got out of the Navy. It shook me because that had been a dream of mine as a kid but I felt by dropping out of school, and the trouble I had been in, I'd never be allowed into a Police Department to visit, much less work. He saw the shocked look on my face and I'll never forget he just told me, "Just think, you can turn that light on and run up the road as fast as you want to go and nobody will bother you." I asked him about school and my past with the Law and he told me that my few tickets wouldn't stop me as long as I didn't get into any more trouble and to get my GED as soon as I could and I would have no trouble getting accepted. He said if I would follow up on it he would personally recommend me to the Sheriff. He then told me he needed to be getting home and to think about what he said, they they could really use me when my time was up in the Navy. He shook my hand and told me to "be careful over there".
My orders to Vietnam were cancelled during my training with the Marines and I continued to think about what we had talked about that night. I had made up my mind that if someone could have that much confidence in me then maybe I should have it in myself. I never had another negative run in with the law. Although it wasn't with the Richmond County Sheriff's Department I was able to spend more than 23 years as a police officer. I never had the opportunity to tell John what a difference he had made in my life.
I was a Police Detective with the Greenwood, SC Police Department on August 2nd, 1982 and had come home to eat when my brother called me and told me I needed to sit down, he had to tell me something. He then told me that John Franscisco had been killed answering a domestic dispute. We all know the dangers but John was larger than life to me. How could someone get to him? I knew if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone, including me.
I was only able to tell the lady at the wall the highlights of how Sgt John Francisco changed a lost kid. It was so hard to talk through the emotions and tears that I could no longer restrain as I recalled the details of our paths crossing over just a few short years and what a perfect example he was as an Officer.
From everything I have heard about JD Paugh I believe him to have been very much like Francisco and I want to say to all my brothers and sisters in Law Enforcement please be careful and learn from JD and John. With that badge, not only are you carrying a responsibility to stay as safe as possible for those who love and care for you but, keep in mind that the next kid you have contact with might have a hidden desire to be just like you. Make them want to be like you and not like the thugs they see on the street. If you can save that one kid you will always have someone to carry on your work and keep this country and it's citizens safe.
To JD and John, you both left this world way to early but you did leave it in a lot better shape than you found it. You each made an indelible mark on everyone you met. Love you brothers. Rest In Peace.
