As a child, we all remember back in school when the sheriffs came to our class and spoke to us about the importance of telling the truth, how their job was to protect the community from criminals of all types; they instilled in us to always report a crime when you witness one. Even the vehicles they drove proclaimed to "protect and serve." We believed in and instilled those values in our children.

When I grew up, I experienced quite the opposite of what I was taught, which was if you speak out against law enforcement that is involved in corruption, you will suffer irreparable consequences. This autobiography tells the truth about what happened when we "did the right thing" that we believed was our duty by calling out corruption in local law enforcement and the irreparable repercussions we suffered at the hands of the very people who were supposed to protect us.

These past years I have prayed for the strength to forgive those who trespassed against us, but as the years went on, those involved continued with their lives, receiving promotions, pay raises, buying new homes, and obtaining new jobs; they, in a nutshell, went on with their daily lives as if it was just another day. With no thought to the ruins they had left our lives in. For us, there would be no new home, no job, and no raise; there would be nothing but trying desperately to put our lives back together. And the realization that those illegal acts we saw? Maybe we should have never done the right thing and turned a blind eye; then, we might have been left alone. Instead, in the end, doing the right thing costs us everything.