Former Caldwell County Deputy Brett O’Dell was charged and convicted for stealing prescription medications and cash from the Caldwell County Evidence vault, now he hopes his story of addiction will help others.
“I don’t think people realize how easy it is to get to where I am right now,” said O’Dell. “I just hope people understand how quickly it does get out of hand and if people around you are seeing it to listen to them because they’re the ones that can see it. You may not believe it but they see it every day. They can see the change.”
In March of 2014 O’Dell was charged with stealing prescription drugs and then around $5,000 in cash from the Caldwell County Evidence vault. He pleaded guilty and received a sentence of five years supervised probation Jan., 29, 2015.
O’Dell attributes his downfall to an addiction to the narcotics Oxycodone and Hydrocodone he began taking after a back injury, Part 2.
“Had I not been addicted to drugs or alcohol I mean there’s really no doubt in my mind that none of this would have happened,” said O’Dell during Part 1 of this 5 part series.
The case came to a close with O’Dell facing probation, paying restitution, surrendering his peace officers license and looking for a new career.
“Now that the case is over that was a little bit of weight off my shoulder because I know who I am when I am clean and when I am sober so I know I can do probation and I know I can do all that stuff because I was not perfect but I was a pretty good kid for 26 years,” he said.
He said he’s been clean for a year. The turning point in his addiction, waking up in the hospital after blacking out in his vehicle (Part 3) to see his parents and wife sitting at the foot of his bed.
“Immediately when I woke up I started bawling like a baby because I had no clue what happened what-so-ever and them looking at me and I don’t want to say very nicely it wasn’t very nice but basically telling me to quit my crying,” he said. “That we were going to do something about it. I didn’t have anything to cry about, crying wasn’t going to get me out of anything and I needed to suck it up and go to treatment.”
O’Dell said he went to treatment and confessed everything to investigators (Part 4). But now he’s trying to figure out what to do next because a career in law enforcement is now out of the question.
“That’s the only thing I’ve done in my adult life was be a police officer and now it’s kind of like well now what? I can work odd and end jobs all I want and do stuff like that but that’s not what I want to do,” he said. “I’d like to get into substance abuse counseling that really interests me and I’ve said this since I was in treatment and I stand by this to this day. The best substance abuse councilors are recovering drug addicts or alcoholics because again nobody understands a drug addict or alcoholic like a drug addict or alcoholic.”
He said he hopes to speak more often to try and help prevent others from ending up where he is today. He said addiction isn’t always so easy for people to see and hopes that others can learn from his experiences.
“I’m lucky enough to have a great family and a great wife who didn’t leave me when she probably should have more than once. But other people may not be that lucky,” he said. “They may lose family members, wifes’, husbands’ and I just hope people realize those are the kind of things they’re putting on the line not just their career. I mean my career, I lost my career but I am grateful I could have lost more.”