05:42 PM PDT on Friday, July 14, 2006

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

ALOHA, Ore. -- An Aloha woman smitten with a sheriff’s deputy called 9-1-1 to get him to come over and succeeded in getting a date – in court, that is.

WCSO photo

Lorna Jeanne Dudash

After her neighbors reported a noise complaint last month, two Washington County sheriff’s deputies knocked on Lorna Jeanne Dudash’s door, said Sgt. David Thompson with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

One of them caught her eye. When they left, Dudash dialed 9-1-1 in a desperate attempt to get the deputy she described to dispatchers as “a cutie pie” to return.

"He's the cutest cop I've seen in a long time. I just want to know his name... heck, it doesn't come very often a good-looking man comes to your door step... I don’t have an emergency… I’ll think of something… throw him back my way, would you?.... just blame it on my dog,” Dudash told a puzzled dispatcher.

After several moments of awkward silence, the dispatcher began repeatedly asking why Dudash needed the deputy to return.

“Honey I’m just going to be honest with you, okay? I just thought he was cute, I’m 45-years-old and I’d just like to meet him again but I don’t know how to go about doing that without calling 9-1-1,” Dudash said at one point during the call.

She went on to say, “I know this is absolutely not in any way, shape or form an emergency, but if you would give the officer my phone number and ask him to come back… would you mind?”

Little did Dudash realize just how much the sheriff’s office did indeed mind.

The “cute” deputy returned, and, once he determined there was no legitimate emergency, he arrested Dudash for misusing 9-1-1. She now faces a fine of up to several thousand dollars and up to a year in jail, according to Thompson.

He said people have called the office’s non-emergency number to inquire about deputies for personal reasons before, but this is the first case he’s heard of involving someone calling 9-1-1 for such a reason.

“That’s taking up valuable time from dispatchers who could be taking true emergency calls… apparently she didn’t know how to look up the non-emergency number,” Thompson said.