10-7, Deputy Adam Mehagan: Thank you for a job well done

 As the clock ticked over from Wednesday to Thursday last week, Osage County Sheriff's dispatcher Darrell Guymon radioed several times to Deputy No. 26, Adam Mehagan.

"26, 10-90," he said, using standard code to check on Mehagan's welfare. 

Mehagan never replied. 

Not to the radio call. 

Not to a page. 

Not to a cell phone call. 

As cops always do, his colleagues on duty fanned out to find him. Near Prue, on curve in CR 1475, they found him.

He was dead, the first deputy sheriff in Osage County to die in the line of duty since December 1924, when Deputy Robert Arnold was gunned down serving a minor warrant.

Mehagan, 25, an affable and much-loved bear of a young man who had always dreamed of becoming a police officer, died in a one-car accident as he was responding to a burglary in progress more than 11 miles away,  at a home occupied by two women west of Sperry that a man had entered while one was in the shower and the other in bed. 

It is unknown exactly when the wreck occurred. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it occurred at 12:01 a.m.; Mehagan radioed dispatch at 11:28 that he was en route to the burglary, and 10 minutes later, another deputy arrived first at the scene of the break-in. Shortly thereafter, the first deputy on the scene told dispatch that the burglar had vanished, and that Mehagan could slow it down, cancel his response. 

Mehagan never got the message. His Crown Victoria patrol car, which he kept meticulously clean and detailed, had run off the roadway to the right, rolled twice can come to rest on its wheels. Mehagan was thrown about seven feet from the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene from head and trunk injuries. He had not been wearing his seatbelt.

On Monday, a cold, gray, cheerless day, more than 1,500 people, most of them lawmen who came from as far afield as the Border Patrol in Texas, flooded Bartlesville for Mehagan's funeral.

His uncle, Evangelist Jerry Catlin of Bartlesville, led the service. 

"This was a dark hour for me and my family, when I got that call at 2:30 in the morning," Catlin said. "I looked at the caller ID, and said, 'This can't be good.'

"My nephew was in a fatal car crash. 

"I was empty. I was empty."

But Catlin said that God started showing him how he could help his little sister Patty, Mehagan's mom, by leading the service. "As a man, it was my duty. As a family member, it was my duty."

"Adam was a good boy, a good son, a good grandson, a good nephew, a good cousin, but most importantly, he was a good husband and father."

Catlin recalled first hearing about Amber Woods, who became Mehagan's wife in July 2008. Said Catlin: "He was so excited. He said, 'Mama, I met a girl and she has two cows! She was wearing pajamas and cowboy boots!"

Mehagan leaves his wife and baby girl Lena Rae Mehagan, who turns 1 year old on Friday, behind. He doted on both, as well as on what his obituary describes as his "two spoiled dogs, Hannah June and Casey Rae."

Monday's tribute to Mehagan was highlighted by a massive outpouring from his brethren in law enforcement and by photos of his life, from his own birth to scenes of him playing and snuggling with his daughter, who, as Undersheriff LouAnn Brown said, "is going to grow up to be a cop one day."

Early on, he was a skinny towhead, a little boy who wore an ET T-shirt, who loved to fish and whose first rifle was longer than he was tall. As he grew up, he excelled at football, and was on the varsity team for the Dewey Bulldoggers, wearing jersey 74 and attending Nike Football Camp. In the winter, he was on the basketball court wearing No. 81.

He was a diehard OU Sooners and Dallas Cowboys fan. 

"He was a sore loser at Uno, and at Texas-OU football games – if we lost," Catlin said. "He loved his OU football."

Then, last year, he was beaming at his own wedding, decked out in white tie with a jaunty red carnation in his lapel, trying to sneak a kiss from his love. Later in the year, he was in the hospital, pulling on a yellow gown to attend Lena's delivery, then holding her on his big chest for the first time.As she got older, he let her explore his patrol car, holding onto the steering wheel, sitting on the hood with handcuffs raised high.

"He said she has the springiest step that made his heart skip a beat," Catlin said. "She was his everything.

"The truth is, Adam loved all of his family very much."

Mehagan had barely started his dream career when he died. He had worked as a correctional officer in Texas, where he also worked with his father as a cabinet maker. He then moved home to Oklahoma, where he worked as a dispatcher and detention officer for the Washington County Sheriff's Office and as a reserve officer with the Ramona Police Department. He was then hired on as a police officer in Pawhuska by then-Chief Harold Hughs, and became CLEET certified in 2007. This past February, he hired on with the Sheriff's Office.

Mehagan had some colorful roots in law enforcement. His grandfather, Clarence Mehagan, was a Barnsdall police officer who was charged with murder and acquitted in the 1956 death of Joe Cole, the current mayor's brother. Mehagan kept old clippings on the case, and did not shy from talking about it.

Mehagan's death wrenched the Sheriff's Office. Several deputies wept at graveside. 

"They are devastated," said Sheriff Ty Koch. "He was not only a dedicated co-worker but be worked among friends. Cops are a close-knit group."

The Sheriff's Office has canceled its Christmas awards dinner that was scheduled for this Saturday. Koch said nominations for awards closed two days before Mehagan's death.

"We haven't even had a chance to open the box and look," Koch said. "But I can guarantee who's getting it."

At graveside, as the sun set and the temperature dropped into the mid-20s, 21 pistol shots were sounded, and Mehagan was dispatched by police radio one last time. The dispatch echoed those that went out to him late Wednesday night, with the addition of a 10-7 – out of service.

"Osage County, Osage 26, 10-90? Osage County, Osage 26, 10-90?

"Osage 26, you're 10-7.

"Thank you for a job well done."

Comments

[Mary Holt]

I did not know the young man in person but from what I read I would have liked to. To have such a young person taken so soon is a great tragedy.My deepest sympathy to his wife, daughter and entire family and the Osage County Sheriffs department as they have lost one of their finest.

[Aunt Cathy Sutton]

Thank you for such a wonderful write up of Adam, his life and his passing. He most certainly was a good young man, Deputy, father, son, husband,grandson, cousin, newphew and a great friend to many. He will be sorely missed but forever remembered.

[Paul Mehagan]

My name is Paul mehagan. Clarence mehagan was my great uncle. I knew I had a cousin in the tulsa area, but i never made contact. I am so srry to here of your loss.