Due credit awarded to do-gooders

Marisa O’Neil

Newport Beach resident Robert Jones could have just kept driving when

he saw a fellow motorist swerving on the road while punching a woman.

Instead, Jones called police, followed the car and waited for

officers to arrive, then later testified at the trial. That action,

which Jones said he didn’t even think twice about, earned him kudos

Friday, along with 22 other people, from the office of Orange County

Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas during the Community Outstanding

Achievement Awards ceremony.

The award honors police, witnesses and Good Samaritans who help

keep criminals off the streets.

Jones said he couldn’t stand by as the man struck his wife, with

his two young children also in the car.

“He was hitting his wife, then he came this close to hitting his

daughter,” Jones, 30, said after the ceremony. “If the wife wasn’t

going to do anything to help herself and her daughter, I was.”

The defendant in that case is now on probation and the family is

in counseling, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Nikki Erlandson, who nominated

Jones for the honor. Jeannette Orozco, 27, won the award for her work

with victims and witnesses at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport

Beach. Deputy Dist. Atty.

Cindy Nichols said she nominated Orozco for her ability to help

those in need, particularly one victim who was too scared to

cooperate with investigators.

“I feel like I’m just doing my job,” said Orozco, who also said it

was the first award she’d ever received.

Costa Mesa Police Officer Derek Trusk, 33, stayed equally humble

about his award. He was celebrated for going out of his way to help

prosecutors, even calling witnesses and collecting evidence on his

own time, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ray Armstrong said.

“My work has not changed since the day I started to what I do

now,” Trusk said.

It’s the second award Trusk has received in six months. In

October, he received the Life Saving Award from the Costa Mesa Police

Department for pulling a man from a burning car while off duty. Some

half a dozen Costa Mesa officers, including Chief John Hensley, came

to the district attorney’s office Friday to see Trusk get his due.

“I’m very thrilled,” Hensley said. “[Trusk] is always a top

producer in the department. He represents us well.”