Highway Patrol dedicates monument to fallen officers

Kyle Hansen

Rep. Dina Titus speaks Friday during the dedication of the Fallen Officers Memorial at the Nevada Highway Patrol Southern Command.

By Kyle Hansen (contact)

Saturday, May 2, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

Fallen Officers Memorial dedication

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Policeman Edwin Hogle, Nevada State Police – February 26, 1911
Pvt. Frank John McManus, Nevada State Police – April 19, 1941
Sgt. George Chandler, Nevada State Police – January 31, 1948
Trooper Robert Russell McGuire, Nevada Highway Patrol – May 16, 1961
Trooper Gary Gifford, Nevada Highway Patrol – October 14, 1975
Agent Ronald P. Chelius, Nevada Division of Investigations – March 13, 1979
Trooper Daniel Mark Peterson, Nevada Highway Patrol – June 18, 1992
Trooper Carlos Jose Juan Borland, Nevada Highway Patrol – December 1, 1993
Deputy Chief John Dorff, State Fire Marshall – May 30, 1995
Trooper Kara M. Kelly-Borgognone, Nevada Highway Patrol - February 28, 2008

When Kevin Kelly lost his daughter, Nevada lost a trooper.

Kara M. Kelly-Borgognone, a trooper with the Nevada Highway Patrol, was killed in a car accident in February 2008 while responding to a bomb scare near Reno. She was one of 10 law enforcement officers honored Friday at the dedication of the Fallen Officers Memorial at the Nevada Highway Patrol’s Southern Command.

Since his daughter’s death, Kelly has become close friends with Highway Patrol Chief Chris Perry. Kelly was already planning on flying down for the dedication from his home in Fallon when Perry called and offered him a ride on a Highway Patrol plane.

Kelly said after the ceremony that Perry stayed with the family in the hospital from the time of Kelly-Borgognone’s accident until doctors were done collecting her organs for donations three days later.

“I could see the weight on his shoulders, too. He lost a trooper,” Kelly said. “I lost a daughter, he lost a trooper. And it weighs pretty heavy at the top.”

Kelly-Borgognone was the most recent Nevada Highway Patrol trooper to die in the line of service.

In addition to the five Highway Patrol officers listed on the memorial are three officers who served the Nevada State Police, the precursor to the Nevada Highway Patrol; an agent from the Nevada Division of Investigation; and a state Fire Marshal deputy.

“This is a tremendous honor to my daughter,” Kelly said. “Anything that honors Kara’s legacy and keeps that memory out there for her family and children, we love it. We hate the reason, but we love the honor.”

Kelly and others at the dedication ceremony Friday morning compared the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to family.

“NHP is like a family. They really are,” Kelly said. “They have their squabbles and their fights. But I’m gonna tell you what, when the chips are down, there’s no finer people you’d ever want to have around you. They will do anything for you.”

Jerald Hafen, the director of the Department of Public Safety, agreed.

“Law enforcement is a fraternity,” he said. “It’s a commitment that we have for each other not only in life, but in death.”

The memorial is situated just off the front of the Highway Patrol’s Southern Command, which is on Sunset Road near Decatur Boulevard and the 215 Beltway.

A 5-foot wall forms a semi-circle around flagpoles with the U.S. and Nevada flags. On the wall is a plaque honoring each of the 10 officers.

“We are very grateful that we have the opportunity to have such a memorial here,” Perry said during the ceremony. “It will truly become a place of reverence for all who wear a uniform and for the family members of those who have been lost.”

Gov. Jim Gibbons and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus spoke at the ceremony. Representatives from the offices of U.S. Reps. Dean Heller and Shelley Berkley and the offices of Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign also made comments.

“It’s really nice to see the governor and Dina Titus and the representatives here,” Kelly said. “That was a nice surprise. I really appreciated that.”

Titus said that the memorial would be a tribute to not only the law enforcement officers who have died but to those still alive.

“It will stand as a constant reminder to us of the sacrifices that they made and the dangers that they face every single day,” Titus said. “Their jobs are hard and perilous and they are vital to our community and they do them without complaint or hesitation.”

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By Lenny_V

5/1/09 at 8:13 p.m.

Suggest removal

Just looking at that photo they look like a bunch of uptight a-holes. How about a monument to the construction workers who have died in this town, far more dangerous job.
By johnmanrules

5/2/09 at 12:15 a.m.

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Wow, great thought there Lenny. Lets put up a monument for all those doped out felons who die when they have stayed up for three days straight and get crushed by the crane operator who was wasted the night before. Why don't we do that? We must be stupid, really!
By smoke14

5/2/09 at 9:48 a.m.

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Lenny, sounds like you have had a few run ins with the police.......because you have made mistakes in your life why would you jump all over a dedication to fallen police officers who have given their lives to save ours....grow up and stop acting 12 Lenny!!
By ExNVKent

5/2/09 at 10:39 a.m.

Comment removed by staff.
By Lenny_V

5/3/09 at 4:15 a.m.

Comment removed by staff.
By Lenny_V

5/3/09 at 4:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

My bad, you ain't a cop. You're just some old man who likes to pretend he's a tough guy by talking $hit on the internet.

I'm sick of you losers complaining about how tough of a job it is being a cop. What a load of BS. I know a bunch of cops and they cruise around like idiots most the night.