Sheriff Randy Meeks, has failed in his duties as the chief law enforcement officer for Hunt County, Texas. He has failed to uphold an environment of honor and integrity by holding is deputies accountable. By doing that he has squandered the public trust he was sworn to protect.

In the chilling example below, he has demonstrated his inability to lead not only by fostering an environment where this behavior is allowed, but also explaining and dismissing this incident by performing a "show" investigation in an attempt to quell public outrage.

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My friend, an Iraqi war veteran, who is a mother of an infant and was 9 months pregnant at the time of this incident. She was a victim of domestic abuse and left the home with her young son. An over reaching and over zealous CPS got involved and told her they needed her whereabouts to do a health and safety check on her son. She invited them to her parents home. They arrived with 3 sheriff's department deputies who announced they were taking the child. When she questioned the CPS worker and asked to see the court order, she was deemed noncompliant, and beaten, while restrained, in front of her child, and thankfully in front of home security cameras. You can clearly hear her scream "I'm pregnant!" right before one deputy repeatedly punches this restrained mother.

She was taken to jail and her son was placed in foster care even though there were family members willing to care for the child. She was charged with assaulting a police officer although she denies any assault took place. While in jail she repeatedly asked to have her injuries examined and documented and was fearful for her unborn child. The jail nurse said she didn't want to get involved fearing for her own job. No prenatal care was offered either. She was segregated because she was pregnant in an isolation cell where she slept on bare concrete and blankets and the lights were left on 24 hours a day. She was awakened every 15 minutes not because she made any threats of self harm but because that was the procedure in the isolation cells. She remained there for 6 days and when released she immediately went to her OB/GYN. They were able to take pictures of her injuries still present 8 days after the attack. They were also able to verify that these injuries were not present before as they saw her the day before the incident. They also documented that she lost weight while in captivity, not a good thing for a pregnant woman.

She gave birth to another son soon after being released and once again CPS swooped in and confiscated the newborn at the hospital and placed him with a family member with severely restricted visits destroying the bonding and breastfeeding process.

I am pro-police. They have a thankless, dangerous job. But there are bad apples who have no business being police officers. There are also bad departments who through their bad leadership set an environment where this behavior is taught and encouraged.

I have known Deanna Jo since we served in Iraq together. It is not cliche when I say we went through some sh** together there. There is a very short list of people who I say I trust with my life blindly. She is one of them.

Deanna was first victimized in a domestic incident then once again by CPS and the sheriff's office. There needs to be questions asked and accountability of this shocking incident.