Long-time Lake Tahoe lawman Les Lovell retires

Since as far back as he could remember, Les Lovell wanted to be a law enforcement officer.
The notions of keeping peace and preserving justice were always on his radar and for 30-plus years, the now-retired senior lieutenant for the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office Lake Tahoe Branch fulfilled his commitment.

Lovell, the top law enforcement officer for the South Lake Tahoe and Meyers portion of El Dorado County, retired on March 22. El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini promoted Pete Van Arnum to lieutenant for the Tahoe office of the department. Van Arnum has been in law enforcement for 36 year.

Lovell's career has been storied and memorable. As the youngest reservist hire to the force in 1980, Lovell worked himself through the ranks, putting in the kind of time and commitment necessary at each level. He leaves having managed the staff of 18 deputies, five sergeants, and the operation staff at the South Lake Tahoe office.

One of the things about Lovell that comes across when you meet him is that for all his years as a law officer, he maintains a genuine demeanor of friendliness and zest for life and people. This, for any veteran officer, isn't easy. When you're job is to serve and protect the greater good of the community from the bad guys, sometimes it can seem as though the bad guys are winning the war. And that's when officers get jaded. Not so for Lovell, who, one time in his career identified that aspect creeping into himself and then quickly turned to another area of law enforcement to focus his strengths.

Tahoe beginnings
As a teenager living in Southern California, Lovell was exploring his options in law enforcement and decided that he wanted to be a wildlife officer for the California Department of Fish and Game. After taking some courses in the LA area, he set out for one of the best schools to learn DFG work: Humboldt State. He loaded some backpacks, put them on his Harley-Davidson and made his way north. He had never been to Lake Tahoe before and thought he would drive his bike through the area to check it out.

As fate would have it, his motorcycle broke down in South Lake Tahoe and the necessary engine part could not be delivered for two weeks. So he stayed in town and did some exploring. He saw there were a few law enforcement and criminal justice classes being offered through Lake Tahoe Community College. After looking at the lake and the natural environment around him, he decided that South Lake Tahoe, instead of Eureka, would be where he would live and go to school.

Like many young adults, Lovell went to work for Heavenly in winter and took criminal justice courses at the college. He befriended El Dorado County Sgt. Jim Roth, who was also an instructor at the college. Through this mentor friendship, Lovell was further convinced that Tahoe was the place to start his career. He enrolled in the sheriff's office reserve program and at the end of 1980, he was brought on board. He had to complete 400 hours of service training in the meantime to further advance.

"Working at Heavenly and working as a reservist, it was one of those things where I knew if I kept it up it would lead to better things," he said. In February 1981 he was asked if he wanted to work in the county jail.
He jumped at the opportunity, calling it "the best course of action to be a permanent employee." He did two six-month tours as a jailer, learning the ins and outs of the system inside. The duty paid off and in February 1982 he was selected as a full time deputy sheriff. He went to the law enforcement regional academy and came back, assigned to patrol.

There, he learned the day-to-day functions and expectations of law officers on the street. He learned quickly and became intrigued with the investigations part of police work. In 1984, he was selected to become a detective for El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, working personal property crimes. But there was something that intrigued him more than theft and that was the criminal drug underworld. He wanted to work inside.

Under cover of darkness
In 1985, Lovell went to work as part of a large drug enforcement task
force between the sheriff's office and the DEA, with the regional office located in Reno. It was a time where cocaine was the drug of choice throughout the U.S., flowing freely from South America, to Florida and shipped by cars, boats and carriers to the West Coast.
Highway 50 was a major corridor for cocaine to California. Lovell wanted to be part of the team to stop the major distributions. The drug underworld then, and to some extent today, is made up of many subcultures. There's the business aspect of it and there is the user and addict part of it. From professional white-collar types to those who are living on the streets as addicts, the drug world is dangerous, but more so at the lower level, Lovell said.

To play the part of undercover drug buyer Lovell would profile and study different fragments of the underworld, whether it was the outlaw biker scene around Northern California and Lake Tahoe or the yuppie nightclub circles around town. He would either grow out his beard and hair and look scruffy or he would be clean-cut and shaven.
While Operation Deep Snow — which resulted in the 1989 federal sting of several high-powered South Lake Tahoe business people and led to the incarceration of the mayor, Terry Trupp and others — one particular undercover operation stands out for Lovell.

It was the summer of 1987 and agents had been alerted that a hefty amount of cocaine was coming into Tahoe from a network of Columbian drug cartels via Mexican nationals. It was up to Lovell, as an undercover officer, to seal a deal for five kilos at $40,000 and then go in for the bust.
Phone calls were made and a meeting place was established, the parking lot of Caesars Tahoe. Lovell was wired with electronic surveillance equipment and was prepared to go in for the deal. When he met the two men, he said he instinctively knew they were packing guns. Lovell, who didn't speak Spanish well, and the two men, who didn't speak English well, met in the dark of the parking lot. The men wanted to see cash for the coke. Lovell asked to see the drugs. The men opened up the back of their car and showed him. Speaking in code to the DEA listening on the other end, Lovell alerted the calvary by saying, "I wish my buddy Jake was here." Jake was Lovell's beloved drug dog.

In a tape recording shared with the Tahoe Mountain News, police units screech into the parking lot and Lovell tells the dealers not to move and that they are under arrest. One of the two men took off running. The other man went to the front of the car and was attempting to grab a gun to shoot Lovell. It happened fast, but Lovell tackled the man before he got to the weapon and in the background of the recording, six shots can be heard, firing at the fleeing suspect. He was hit, but not fatally.

"It was one of those split decisions and I knew what he was going to do. He was reaching for his gun," Lovell said. The R-rated moment on tape captures the essence and the adrenaline of what does go on, more or less, in battling the criminal drug underworld. Front money is a huge part of stings and when he worked undercover, there was plenty of it to go around. "For me and for all of us, what is most important is to not have the drugs on the street," he said.

From underworld to above ground
After Operation Deep Snow, the weight of undercover work began to wear on Lovell. He knew his face was familiar in the area and that his days of working underground were coming to an end.

"There comes a point in doing this kind of work where you are tainted," he said. "In more ways than one. You think about being in public, who knows you, who doesn't. You could be in the grocery store with your family and you'll see someone who is part of that." And it also has other effects too, he said, which he calls "your outlook on life.
"You begin to not see the good side of anybody. When this happens, this is when it is time to get out," he said.

Lovell was recognized by the DEA for his vast amount of undercover work of more than 100 drug buys that resulted in hundreds of arrests. Each time, whether he knew it or not, he was putting his life on the line.

"It's a very dangerous place," he said. "But there is no better feeling in the world when you have a seriously bad person removed from the community."
Lovell moved into a more open part of law enforcement, putting the undercover work behind him and training other up and coming detectives along the way. He began to also work as a uniformed narcotics officer doing highway drug interdiction. Among his partnerships was working alongside former South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Terry Daniels.

"As far as a single individual who probably impacted me the most during my career, that would be former Chief of Police for the City of South Lake Tahoe Terry Daniels," Lovell said. "I think you are lucky if you have more than a handful of true friends during your lifetime and Terry is someone that I have entrusted my life to on many occasions. I would not hesitate to go through any door with Terry knowing bad guys were on the other side."

In 1996, Lovell was promoted to sergeant, and then did a brief stint in the sheriff's office in Placerville, assigned to internal affairs. In 2003, he was promoted to lieutenant and has since been overseeing the patrol department, the coroner's office, SLEDNET, the detectives unit, volunteer programs and the budget for the Lake Tahoe office. And for 12 years, he has been teaching criminal justice at Lake Tahoe Community College.

Lovell was instrumental in starting LTCC's reserve officer training program and has taught Community and Human Relations and Introduction to Corrections. He continues to be a valuable part of LTCC's Criminal Justice advisory committee which recently approved a vocational degree for transfer in Criminal Justice.

"Of all the instructors I have supervised and evaluated over the years, Lt. Lovell is in the top one percent," said Virgina Boyar, director of Career and Technical Education at LTCC. "I am currently doing my best to keep him on board as an adjunct instructor because his experience and truly exceptional teaching skills will be truly missed. The students adore him, as do all the staff at LTCC."

Here's a comment from one of his students during his evaluation: "Lt. Lovell is the best instructor I have ever had at college, and I have taken many classes. He's always up to date on his information and makes each class session so interesting. I wish he could teach every class here!"

With word of Lovell's retirement, accolades have streamed in. "I congratulate Lt. Les Lovell on his 30 years of service to the citizens of El Dorado County. He has been a pillar of his community for many years and I relied on him heavily for his knowledge of all things 'South Lake Tahoe,'" said El Dorado County Sheriff John D'Agostini. "Les will surely be missed by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office family but in his retirement, we know he will be enjoying his time with his own family."

El Dorado County Deputy District Attorney Hans Uthe called Lovell a "gutsy, smart law enforcement officer who cares about the community and has put himself in harm's way more than needed."
"He has excelled in everything he's done and believe me he's done it all," Uthe said, noting his past drug interdiction work.

Lt. Van Arnum of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office has worked with Lovell for 30 years. They both worked narcotics in the 80s, with Van Arnum assigned to the FBI task force and Lovell assigned to SLEDNET. Both worked on the Deep Snow investigation.

"He can always be counted on to have a fellow officer's back when things are tense, but at the same time we both have a softer side and have volunteered with Lake Tahoe Wildlife for years," Van Arnum said. "I most appreciate the effort he put in two years ago when our beloved clerk Ina Gibson was dying of cancer. He went the extra mile to ensure her retirement was official prior to her death, to ensure that her family would receive all of her retirement benefits. He's truly a class guy."

Lovell said through it all, his family has helped keep him strong.
"Probably my most highly prized accomplishment is and has been keeping my family together. Law enforcement as a career is brutally hard on relationships. The weird hours, missed holiday functions, missed youth sports events, and sometimes general bad moods, especially after dealing with people that victimize others, that come with the job are never far from your thoughts. I am really lucky to have a family who supported me through thick and thin. To my wife Kathay, I have to say a very special thank you."

Thoughts on South Lake Tahoe

Every community goes through hills and valleys of change and since he arrived in South Lake Tahoe in 1979 he's seen plenty. At that time, the town was alive with growth and had an essence of being the place of choice as a destination. The clubs at Stateline had nothing but headline entertainment and the community seemed to have a more optimistic view of itself, Lovell said. It was the norm to see game shows on television awarding vacations to Lake Tahoe.

Political changes and decision, especially as related to the gaming industry, have compromised the social status of the South Shore, Lovell said. Declining revenues and declining population have taken their toll in the last 30 years. "I have great hopes for a South Lake Tahoe come-back in the near future. The Lake itself will always be an incredible resource; it is finding a balance of environment and light industry that will be the renaissance stimulator," he said.

"Locals at Tahoe have always impressed me with their community spirit and pride. They are the driving force in keeping our community safer and more secure than most other areas I know of," he said. "Most permanent residents I see do not hesitate to help their neighbors and that was something I rarely experienced when I lived in the Los Angeles area.

"Overall, I think that while the community is challenged by the current economic hurdles, our residents continue to be a very kind and thoughtful people."
Plans for retirement have been in the works. He and Kathay, who herself was a long-time city councilwoman and mayor of South Lake Tahoe, plan to "actually vacation at Lake Tahoe," he said. "In all the years that I have been here, that opportunity has never really presented itself. Sounds like a good short term goal. Long term, semi-retirement is probably more my style."