If you're up to date on what's happening in Okaloosa County, then you're aware that there have been five inmate deaths in a four-month span at the Okaloosa County Department of Corrections from October 2022 through January 2022, where Eric Esmond was promoted as a director on Dec 2nd, 2019 until he resigned July 2022. Below is a list of those 5 emergency calls.

 

October 19, 2022: call for an unattended death at 2:41 p.m.
December 18, 2022: call for a medical emergency at 2:15 p.m.
December 24, 2022: call for a medical emergency at 1:26 p.m.
January 17, 2023: call for an unattended death 10:51 a.m.
January 22, 2023: call for an unattended death 10:51 a.m.

On April 23, 2020, I reported via email a complaint to Eric Esmond describing details about a Sgt. who was actively involved with physical harm (causing injury to an inmates arm), intimidation & coercion of inmates, and threats to house short-term inmates downstairs with the murderers while another officer looked on watching and did nothing. I REPORTED THIS IN 2020. Eric Esmond responded with an email for me to call him. I briefly spoke to Eric Esmond and he was more interested in where I worked as a C.O. Unfortunately, this complaint went no where. But I did let him know I had made a phone call and sent a Sheriffs Deputy INSIDE the jail to take a statement/affidavit from the inmate with the injured arm. (Everyone in Law Enforcement will tell you this is a "no no", you don't send one agency into another. They handle their own.) But I already went that route and nothing was done. The injured Inmate wanted to file charges against the Sgt and several other inmates were begging me to "please send somebody from the outside in Ms Brenda" We're scared. YES! GROWN MEN that I never met or talked to before in my life were telling me on the phone they needed help. Ya know I thought as a former Correctional Officer myself, I would run this complaint directly to Eric Esmond and he would thank me for the heads up and he would handle the problem by taking care of the problem. But what he did instead was retaliated by having me charged & thrown in jail twice within 10 days (2 warrants, same charges (double jeopardy)), charging me with 6 felonies by attaching me to a synthetic marijuana investigation that was already going on inside the jail! WITH NO EVIDENCE! NO PRIOR ARREST! NOTHING! But they did it yall. CO Ryan McCurley who works in ACR/Booking at the jail wrote some false facts and added this and added that and managed to create probable cause & then of course Deputy Koutney Howard started the warrants with "I was advised by a concerned citizen" ..but to this day she still has not revealed who that concerned citizen was (but I'm working on that) and it wasn't in my discovery. Then her OIC, Lt. Heath Hehl gave her permission to get it signed by Judge Patricia Grinstead who resigned Aug 23, 2021, exactly 1 year after my first arrest. So you can go to jail on hearsay yall. Cause that's all they had according to the warrants. No Video, no prior arrest, no undercover sting...not 1 phone call to my phone number was produced that validated anything CO Ryan McCurley wrote in his statements against me that caused my arrests. He wrote false statements against me which is a crime. Penal Code 118.1 – police officers filing false reports. This section makes it a crime for a police officer to make a false statement about a criminal matter in any police report, regardless of whether the report is submitted under oath. Deputy Kourtney Howard also violated Penal Code 118.1. Word spread quickly throughout the Sheriff's Dept and so did the traffic stops.

I lost my job of 4 yrs (all 3) my home and my respect amongst friends, family & the community. My mugshots were passed around on social media and I was humiliated when I was ridiculed by my 600 tenants. In Oct 2020, I left Fort Walton Beach and moved to Destin, Fl where I began to notice the Deputys that were assigned to that area began to execute frivolous traffic stops on me, a lot..sometimes 2-3 times a day...first it started off with obstructing my view with things hanging on my rearview mirror so I removed everything, then it became obstructing the word OKALOOSA on my tag by my tag frame. So I removed all tag frames from all my vehicles after I was stopped by a sheriff's deputy on top of Brooks Bridge in FWB at 3 am in the morning and got out to walk the bridge to get to the back of my car so I could see exactly what he was talking about. The tag numbers were in plain view and he could identify my vehicle.

I began to find myself trying to make it from my home in the middle of Destin to the brooks bridge without being detected because I knew it was only the Destin Deputys that were after me by this time. I began to get paranoid to leave my home, I would sit in my room and cry for days, didn't want to be seen or socialize. Feeling stalked & harrassed. They continued to stop me at night because I was reduced to doordashing for income. Nobody would hire a General Manager or Property Manager with 6 pending drug felonies and I couldn't clear a level 2 background check. Finally, after coming face to face with Deputy Brandon Simpkins (Street Crime Unit) I had had enough. I was waiting to encounter him and finally I had my opportunity.

I am here to tell you this CHANGED MY LIFE. It took me 2 years to fight these charges. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2020 thru January 2021, Look at the times, dates, and officers' names. Some were stopping me multiple times per day or running my tags.