Politics & Government

Solemn Crowd Pays Tribute to Slain Marin County Sheriff's Deputy

About 1,000 turn out at Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium for memorial service in honor of Jim Mathiesen, killed July 19 during an off-duty dispute with a Novato gunman.

A Marin County Sheriff’s deputy quietly carried the wide-brimmed hat of fallen colleague Jim Mathiesen into Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael on Friday as nearly 2,000 people paid tribute to the man killed while trying to save a friend involved in a domestic dispute.

Mathiesen, 49, was in Petaluma on July 19 by a Novato man, , who minutes later shot and killed by another man. Halloran was the ex-boyfriend of a woman, a longtime family friend of Mathiesen, who lived at the residence in the 800 block of Liberty Road in Sonoma County where the fatal shootings occurred.

Mathiesen had been called by the woman for advice in dealing with her ex-boyfriend, with whom she’d broken up nine days earlier, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. Halloran showed up at the house 20 minutes after Mathiesen, and Mathiesen asked Halloran to leave. Halloran then shot and killed the unarmed deputy, according to sheriff’s reports.

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After shooting Mathiesen, Halloran was fatally shot at the home after he took the family friend hostage. Halloran’s funeral took place last week.

Mathiesen, a nine-year deputy in Marin, worked for sheriff’s custodial division that includes the Marin County Jail and Marin County Superior Court. He was a Petaluma resident and is survived by a wife and two sons.

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Speakers at the memorial service said it was Mathiesen's nature to help anyone in need and that is what led him to become a deputy at age 40 after a career in the construction industry.

Mathiesen's oldest son, Vincent, said his father held his children and his wife "in the highest bracket of his life."

Recalling a bumper sticker on his father's truck, Vincent said,  "He lived every day like it was his last. I'm going to live by that."

Mathiesen was remembered as a practical joker, a good dancer, a man who worked and played hard and as someone who was known to enjoy a cocktail.

"I once sold him a car for two vodka cranberries," Mathiesen's brother-in-law Doug Fletcher said, eliciting much laughter.

"He never said, 'You owe me one,'" Fletcher said, echoing others who said Mathiesen helped anyone who needed it.

"He was all about people. Like Norm on 'Cheers,' everyone knew his name," Fletcher said.

"He knew intuitively what is important and what is not. He was not about petty," he said.

Nephew Ryan Cogbill said his uncle "loved this life" and said, "He 'got' it."

Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle recalled hiring Mathiesen in 2002.

"Every organization needs a bunch of Jims," Doyle said.

Sgt. Hugh Baker, president of the Marin County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, recalled Mathiesen keeping his jail inmate work crews busy because he said, "they did not want to rot in their cells."

Mathiesen’s sister, Debbie Fletcher, wrote in the service’s program that her brother had a “positive never-say-never persona, he worked very hard and he never gave up.” She wrote that he “was loved by his coworkers for both his incredible work ethic and his uplifting spirit.”

Pallbearers on Friday were Deputy John Volpe of the Marin County Sheriff’s Department, Lt. Doug Fletcher of the Citrus Heights Police Department, officers Blair Auld and Ryan Cogbill of the San Rafael Police Department and friends Eric Olson, Mark “Tiny” Thompson and Darrell Pasini.

After the two-hour service, mourners were invited to write notes to Mathiesen that will be burned during his cremation.

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report.


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