Joseph G. Clayborne

It is with great sadness that the West Conshohocken Police Dept, Montg County Police Chiefs, and Montg County Fop announce the passing of Police Chief Joe Clayborne.  Joe was with friends last night including State Representative Mike Vereb and former West Conshohocken officer Piero sassu.  Joe was scheduled to have his retirement dinner this coming Friday night.  More details will follow but below is an e-mail Piero Sassu wrote about the circumstances last night.  I felt it was a very touching email.

 

 It is with the deepest regret I announce the death of Joseph Clayborne a few hours ago. Mike Vereb and I had arranged a "Boys Night Out" for Joe last night. It started at 7:00 PM at Joe's house and was to be a luxury limousine bus trip to Chickie & Pete's in N.E. Philadelphia and then onto the Tropicana Hotel and Casino where I arranged admittance to their VIP club and a night of fun and gambling. A few of Joe's friends came along including his son. We had some laughs, some pictures by his wife and then off to a fun night. At 7:40 PM as the bus was on US Rt 1 about a mile away from Chickie & Pete's, Joe collapsed. While Mike and Joe Jr. started CPR, I had the bus pull over and was on the phone with 911 Emergency Dispatch. As Mike Vereb and I switched off during CPR, we had respiration and heart beat, just as the ambulance pulled up. The ambulance crew quickly loaded Joe onto the ambulance and still had a heart rate as they pulled away and transported Joe to Frankford-Torresdale Hospital. About an hour later Joe was pronounced dead.

The worst part about all this is that even as the training Mike Vereb and I received as police officers kicked in, it wasn't enough. We acted calmly, smoothly, efficiently and quickly, but even though we handled it like a "text book medical emergency", we couldn't save him. We did our absolute best but that just wasn't enough to save him.

I don't have the funeral arrangements yet. Mike and I talked to his wife Cindy at length about a "dress uniform" police funeral and she did agree to it. There are no funeral arrangements yet and I do not know if they will do an autopsy.

That's all I have for now...

Piero Sassu

 

Ray L. Wilson
Technology chairman
Montg County FOP

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