News

Kiwanis Club honors law officers, plus a surprise

Award winners were HPD Lt. Mike Vesely, Trooper Spero Davis, Fletcher Sgt. Suzanne Norris, Sheriff's Sgt. Dottie Parker, Magistrate Mike Wagner and Laurel Park Lt. Grayson Mullen.

By Bill Moss, Published: March 26, 2015

The 2015 Morris Kaplan Caring and Sharing Awards for local law officers were all set to go the printer when one of the award recipients called to ask if he "could do something different" with his award, Kiwanian Doug Dunlap said.

It wasn't just different. It was unprecedented.
Two-time award winner Grayson Mullen, a Laurel Park police lieutenant, said he wanted to honor his mentor and friend, Henderson County Magistrate Michael Wagner, by giving the award to him.
"The magistrates of the county make it possible for us to do our job," he said. "Our magistrates do yeoman's work. They work 24 hours a day just like I do."
Wagner came to the podium and thanked his friend. He said he always wanted to be in law enforcement and had a tremendous respect for the law officers who bring people they have arrested to the magistrate's office.
Suggested by then-Sheriff George Erwin, the Hendersonville Kiwanis Club award is named for Morris Kaplan, a club member from 1955 until his death in 2007 at age 97. The Caring and Sharing Award each year honors a law officer from the State Highway Patrol, sheriff's department and from the Hendersonville, Laurel Park and Fletcher police departments. Other winners were:

• Trooper Spero Davis, a two-year veteran of the Highway Patrol, who participated in school bus and Halloween safety events and campaigns the danger of texting and driving. A 2009 graduate of T.C. Roberson High School, Davis, 23, enjoys soccer, motorcycles, fishing, hunting and camping.
• Hendersonville Police Lt. Mike Vesely, who has been with the city police department for 20 years and in law enforcement for 27, is a medal of honor recipient for valor during the Caldwell Inn fire. "You talk about a profound difference," Chief Herbert Blake said. "He's done things for our police department other people are not able to do. He's put us on the map statewide and nationally" — in training and in starting the local Shop with a Cop event for kids.
• Fletcher Patrol Sgt. Suzanne Elizabeth Harris, an eight-year veteran, was recognized by Assistant Chief Don Davis. "I think every agency has one — a quiet professional, someone who does her job and absolutely hates being in front of people," he said.
• Detective Sgt. Dottie Marie Parker of the Henderson County Sheriff's Office is one of the department's key interviewers in child sexual abuse cases and is also a skilled polygraph examiner. A former Hendersonville police officer and SBI agent, Parker "returned to her home agency" seven years ago. Her husband is Deputy Jeremy Parker.