We have a brand new updated website! Click here to check it out!

Addiction Part 4 – O’Dell’s conviction

In less than 11 months former Caldwell County Deputy Brett O’Dell faced, charges and a conviction now he’s speaking out about his addiction.

“To go from somebody, not to sound arrogant but somebody who had a really good reputation to somebody who is on the front page, out there the front page of the paper I think three straight weeks was my record. It was really, honestly pretty humiliating,” said O’Dell.

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 less than 8 months later and received his sentencing of 5 years supervised probation Jan., 29, 2015.

“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.

After being charged O’Dell found himself on the other side of the jail cell.

“They put me up in Daviess/Dekalb because for obvious reason they couldn’t put me in the Caldwell County Jail,” he said. “I go to jail, I get put in a suicide suite, I wasn’t suicidal but I get put in a suicide suit so I got to spend the night like that.”

He said he was bonded out after spending a week behind bars.

“I was on bond for about 8 months, no 9 months,” he said. “Of course they did drug tests and all that stuff. As far as the process goes with the case I told myself it was going to be okay and of course I told my wife it was going to be okay but I really didn’t know it was going to be okay.”

O’Dell said he didn’t realize he was an addict at the beginning.

“My addiction told me that I was different,” said O’Dell during Part 2. “Because I wasn’t like them. I wasn’t like the people that were addicted to whatever the drug might be, meth, whatever when in all actuality there was no difference between the two of us other than drug of choice.”

He said his charges came as a shock to many, “If you would have asked the people that know me or my family I think they’d probably tell you I was about the last person they though this would happen to.”

O’Dell claims to not remember how the money got into his hands but he did make plans to use it.

“I had a pretty good idea, but I wasn’t entirely sure how it had gotten there, ” he said during part 3. “My intention with the cash was to pay off some debt. I had a judgement entered against me in civil court so really it was to pay that off. To pay off some other things that had come up and stuff like that.”

O’Dell’s case came to a close with him being placed on supervised probation, something many readers have referred to as “getting off easy.”

We asked O’Dell what his thoughts were on his sentencing.

“I can see why people would say that as far as my sentence goes and I can understand it,” he said. “I mean, for what I did five years probation probably doesn’t seem like a lot but at the same time I’m one slip-up away from going away for 14.”

On top of everything else he also has to find a new career after giving up his Peace Officer’s License and paying restitution.

“That’s the only thing I ever wanted to do was to be a police officer and I got to do it and do it well and for it to be gone…”

O’Dell says he hopes to be able to help others with his story of addiction.

Check back with the St. Joseph Post Friday night for the final of this 5 part series or listen to 680 AM KFEQ Friday during the 5 p.m. hour.

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File