Friends Mourn at Rites for Police Dispatcher

PARAMOUNT — More than 100 friends and co-workers turned out Tuesday for the funeral of Leah J. Clark, a Newport Beach police dispatcher who was killed last week in a hit-run auto accident.

Even as Clark was remembered at services at Paramount Mortuary, California Highway Patrol investigators appealed to the public for information about the accident.

After a brief graveside service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, colleagues praised Clark, 36, who had worked for 12 years in the Newport Beach department, as a warm woman with a wonderful sense of humor.

“She loved to sing and dance, even at work,” said dispatcher Barbara Meiner. “She had a great sense of humor and was a real fun person to work with. Her favorite song was ‘Oklahoma.’ She’d just throw her leg out and start singing. You could hear her all over the building.”

Jan Smith, another Newport Beach dispatcher, said she trained Clark for the job 12 years ago and became one of her best friends.

“I never knew anybody more ready with a compliment for her friends,” she said. “I never knew anybody who was always there like she was. Even if she got angry or down, it never lasted. You couldn’t stay mad at her, either.

“When things were going wrong, she’d bust out at the top of her lungs into some crazy song and have everyone laughing.”

The accident occurred about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the CHP said. Clark was driving a pickup truck west on La Paz Road in Mission Viejo when she lost control of the vehicle, which swerved to the right, struck a concrete tree planter and tipped over on its right side, throwing her onto the road.

Some time later, the CHP added, a car struck Clark, accelerated and continued west, running a stop light. Investigators said that they don’t know when Clark died but that she may still have been alive when the car hit her.

Witnesses described the hit-run vehicle as a small, white, late-model car carrying two people.

John Knotek, a member of the Newport Beach department who is helping the CHP investigate the accident, said the public’s help is needed. He asked “anybody with information who may have seen the crash” to call the CHP.