Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, California
End of Watch: Thursday, October 23, 1980
Age: 26
Tour of Duty: 3 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Aircraft accident
Date of Incident: October 23, 1980
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Not available
Deputies Bliss Magly and Brent Jameson were killed when their Sheriff’s Department helicopter crashed and burned in heavy fog. The location was approximately one-half mile south of the Sonoma County Airport between River Road and Laughlin Road. Deputy Jameson was the pilot and Deputy Magly was the helicopter observer. They were returning from a mission to assist law enforcement officers on the ground in the area of Ludwig Avenue east of Llano Road between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.
Deputy Magly had served with the agency for three years and is buried at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
To honor the deputies, scholarships in their names were opened at Santa Rosa Junior College to assist deserving criminal justice students. The annual Sheriff’s Department awards banquet was started as a result of this tragedy as a way to properly recognize outstanding work of Sheriff’s Department employees. The first banquet was dedicated to Deputies Jameson and Magly and they were posthumously awarded Gold Medals of Valor.