Los Banos Rotary Club History
Undersheriff Is Rotary Speaker

John Latorraca, Merced County undersheriff, Tuesday noon gave members of the local Rotary Club an interesting resume of operations in and responsibilities of the sheriff's office. Latorraca, a native Los Banosan, has been associated with the office for a number of years and now serves immediately under Sheriff Cornell.

Commenting on the several functions of the office, Latorraca called specific attention to the civil department, which he said almost supports the office financially, collecting some $100,000 annually in fees for the processing of legal papers, etc. All such fees go into the general fund of the county treasury.
In the criminal department, Latorraca said the county now has four highly trained investigators, who in addition to initial training, annually attend special FBI training schools to keep abreast of modern techniques and procedures.
Relative to the jail itself, Latorraca reported there were 133 prisoners in the jail Tuesday morning, and 165 at the Rehabilitation Center. In the 24 x 24-foot felony "tank", there were 39 felony-charged prisoners – a condition that Latorraca said is very bad and inductive to continual watchfulness to prevent trouble among the men who are so closely confined.

Latorraca also spoke briefly concerning the rapid increase in the narcotic problem in California and said continual vigilance is maintained in this county to prevent investation of the narcotic racket here. He also showed numerous items of the narcotic trade, including papers of heroin and samples of marijuana.

Latorraca was introduced by Ernest Petrocelli, program chairman for the day.

January 18, 1957

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