Print Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans — that seems to be the case for Joyce LaPointe, who came to Costa Mesa in 1987 to become a physical therapist and wound up making local history instead. On Wednesday, LaPointe, 52, participated in a virtual swearing-in ceremony where she became the first female captain to serve in the Costa Mesa Police Department, a second in command to Chief Bryan Glass himself. That officious moment was the culmination of a decades long career with the department that saw her rise through the ranks — from officer to corporal in 2002, to sergeant five years later and to lieutenant in 2015.