GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

2:40 pm Monday, January 24th, 2018 I received a call from my girlfriend Brittany White, however, it wasn’t her on the other end of the phone. It was a trooper with the Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) informing me that she had been placed under arrest and I had 10 minutes to take possession of her car, or it would be impounded. I was in disbelief, if you know Brittany you struggle to imagine what she could have possibly done to be arrested, she’s a hard-working young woman with two jobs and is attending college for her second degree. The trooper would not tell me the cause of the arrest, only that she could call me from jail. I ran out the door, jumped in the truck and rushed across town. She had been pulled over on the Northbound Mill street onramp of I-580, I parked where the troopers instructed me, and get out. The female officer asks if I am Emory Peterson and asks for my driver’s license to which I oblige. She instructs me to wait in Brittany’s car and walks back to her cruiser while her male partner keeps an eye on Brittany who’s handcuffed in the back of the car. Again, they refuse to tell me anything, nor allow me to talk to her, at this point, I am completely baffled. Eventually, she returns telling me I’m ready to go, and Brittany would call me from the jail. I then drive her car to the closest parking lot at the Grand Sierra Resort, run back up to my truck and drive home, completely lost.

Over the next 2 hours my mind races, what she could have possibly done to end up in this situation? She had just recently purchased the car she was driving, maybe there was a mix up at the DMV, or the prior owner had left something illegal in the car? She had been sick for a week; maybe she had accidentally taken too much DayQuil and been considered under the influence? Nothing adds up and I just wait, staring at the phone until it finally rings.

I immediately hear the pain and fear in her voice; she’s crying profusely and pleading for help. She tells me she was pulled over for a minor traffic violation and arrested on a felony drug warrant out of Nye County. She doesn’t even know where Nye County is, she has no idea what they are talking about and has been treated like a criminal the entire time. She’s repeatedly explained she knows nothing about it; they refuse to listen and act like she’s a drug smuggler finally brought to justice. Each time they ask her more details she becomes even more confused, not understanding the charges, she quite literally is in pure shock and disbelief. She tells me she feels like it’s a bad dream, she’s shaking and cold in a jail-issued t-shirt, they took her sweatshirt and she doesn’t understand because other inmates have theirs. The guards become more and more upset with her, some of which start saying rather nasty things to her. She’s told she has a $5,000 bail and doesn’t know what to do, who to call and has told them over and over it must be a mistake while pleading with them to please believe her. I tell her I’ll be there in 15 minutes and will do whatever it takes to get her out of there.

Having no prior experience bailing someone from jail I called a bail bond company, I’m told the cost is 15% of the bail ($750 in our case), and that is the fee by law. The money would not be returned regardless of the outcome of the case. Fortunately, through hard work and saving, we have the liquidity to pay the bail in cash which means we’ll theoretically receive it all back once things are settled.

I arrive at the Washoe County Sheriff’s office minutes later with $5,000 cash in hand. I speak to the cashier and do my best to explain what I’ve heard and how ridiculous it all sounds. Neither Brittany nor myself even knew where Nye county was, and surely we’d have known about any felony warrants for her arrest? I explained to them I fully understood that nearly everyone claims to be innocent and must have story after story. I begged them to listen to me, have someone take another look, please don’t assume she’s guilty. I try to reason with them and explain that in 2018 we surely must be able to have the issuing county e-mail a photo or fingerprints over and it’ll become immediately evident that she’s either a ‘drug lord’ or someone has made a major mistake. They make a few calls to their superiors I’m told it’s an ‘original charge’, no one has been arrested for it, so they don’t have a photo or fingerprints, but she matches all of the ‘descriptors.’ I ask what that means, and I’m told its name, birthdate, social security number, address, phone number and more. They’re positive this warrant is for her, there is no mistake. I tell them I’m here to post bail for her regardless, and ask for a supervisor or someone with more information. I need answers, and if I need to have an attorney present I’d be happy to have one there in minutes.

Eventually, a supervisor does indeed come up and is a rather pleasant man. He has a print out of the original warrant from Nye county and explains the charges to me, “The warrant was originally filed June 26, 2011, for NRS 453.401, a category C felony for conspiracy to steal prescription medications in Pahrump, NV”. I ask them to check and be sure it wasn’t another person with the same name; as a quick Google search had proven there was another Brittany White in that area. He tells me everything matches and there is little he can do.

Brittany was born in 1984, lived in Las Vegas from 1987 until 2005 and has since been a Reno resident. I tell him she’s never been to Pahrump, and start asking logical questions. How has she apparently been a fugitive from justice for six and a half years? Passing background checks for work with children, attending college, always having her current address on her driver’s license and having received a ticket for talking on her cell phone while driving just two years ago yet not one time being informed, nor arrested for these supposed felony charges? I continue to ask how in the world nobody has sent her a letter, called or even shown up to her residence or place of work to arrest her for said charges. It sounds unbelievable and they need to start taking a deeper look because I’m near 100% certainty she’s falsely imprisoned. My quick research uncovered Nye County has been involved in corruption, embezzlement, sex tapes, murdering dogs, FBI investigations and more, countless mistakes have been made, and they’ve all but lost their credibility as a policing agency. He says he is well aware, they’ve had issues before and agrees to attempt to secure more information from them. He even goes so far as to say the bail set by Nye County is absurd for the charges. He heads back to his office, and I proceed to pay the $5,000 bail, but feel like I’m almost playing into a trap. They scrutinize every bill and I wonder if the assumption made is that the drug dealing boyfriend arrived with large amounts of cash just after her arrest and is par for the course.

She calls me every 45 minutes and gives me updates while crying, still scared beyond means, her charge carries mandatory minimum sentencing of 1 year in prison in the state of Nevada. She is absolutely terrified for her freedom, her life, and her career.Her character is being destroyed, she recognizes many of the guards from her serving job and feels they will forever judge her. Her arrest led to her “no-call, no-showing” to pick up a foster child, which may terminate her employment, especially when relating to a felony drug charge. Any logical company would immediately cut ties regardless of the outcome for fear of backlash, employing a possible felon around at-risk children and teens. I tell her I’m doing everything I can to get her out of there as soon as possible, I will not rest until she’s free, and I love her dearly. She asked me to call her work and try to explain the situation to them, although she expected it to end her career. Her supervisor was far more accepting of the situation than I could have ever expected, she believed in Brittany, thank god.

It’s now after 7 pm, and I’m told it would be 4-6 hours until she is released, I ask that they do what they can to speed things up. She had repeatedly told me she was freezing and that no one cared, and they were beginning to treat her worse and worse as time went on seemingly due to her lack of admitting she was guilty. One female member of the Sheriff’s office commented that “she was surprised she had figured out how to stay out of jail this long.” You can imagine my internal outrage at this point.

If this could happen to her, it could happen to anyone, and the consequences are life-changing, to say the least. I immediately decided I would cancel all of my upcoming appointments and focus on documenting this incident from start to finish; I would show the world (or whoever was willing to listen) that these things do happen to real people. Imagine how differently this could have gone, if it had happened to me or many others the initial stop could have been not only life changing, but life ending. I legally carry a concealed weapon on a daily basis, had I been stopped for felony drug charges I would have been removed from the car at gunpoint, one slight mistake in judgment by the arresting officers or accidental move on my part could have proved fatal. They wouldn’t be able to “un-shoot” me later if it was determined to be a misunderstanding. According to CBS News, “A full 57% of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense”. Think about that for a second, not only could this end in a fatal shooting or even being roughed up by police (I’d like to point out her arrest experience was professional, and by the book, I tip my hat to the arresting officers of the NHP). More than half of our country wouldn’t have nearly enough money on hand to even pay the required 15% of her bail money to get her out of jail which is just the FEE; you never get that money back. If 57% can’t afford a $500 bill, what percentage can afford a $750 bill? What percentage of those under the age of 35 like ourselves can? Imagine having to tell a family member:

“I love you, and I believe you, but there is nothing I can do to get you out of jail, we don’t have enough money, you’re going to have to stay in there until your court date.”

I want that to sink in, that is absolutely the reality for the vast majority of Americans. This equates to “guilty until proven innocent” when you don’t have the financial ability to fight a false charge. Again, I am so thankful we are fortunate enough to cover the entire $5,000 without adversely affecting our lives. We are not rich, we merely live within our means and take saving seriously.

Had we not been able to pay the bail or come up with the $750 the most likely scenario would have been her being held up to 72 hours for an arraignment. Without any further evidence, she could have then been extradited to Nye County to stand trial on February 5th, 2018. Imagine being stuck in jail for 14 days and transferred six and a half hours away to a city you’ve never been to in shackles. Outrageous.

Around 9 pm I headed back up to the jail with full camera and lighting gear in hand, I knew nobody would appreciate me showing up looking like a reporter pointing a camera in their face, but for me, it was the principle of the situation. I knew she had been falsely imprisoned, her reputation, career, and freedom were on the line, and I was going to document it in its entirety. She was finally released just before 10 pm, roughly 8 hours after being pulled over and 6 hours in jail. I was able to embrace her while she cried, shaking and terrified, I captured those moments on video. We were promptly told she needed to leave the property or she would be re-arrested (interesting way to approach releasing someone from jail). We proceeded up to the edge of the property, set up the lights and camera and I immediately interviewed her to document what she had just been through. You can imagine how hard it was to listen to, but it needed to happen for the sake of any other falsely accused victim in the future.

We headed home; she decided she was too terrified to pick up her car that night, she didn’t want to be pulled over and somehow in this sick dream be taken back into custody. She hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, she was still sick and had been too afraid to ask for any cold/flu medication while in jail because we both thought it might be used against her in court as some sort of evidence that she indeed was somehow caught up in drugs. She had been starving but, hadn’t eaten the “yellow colored bread and cheese sandwiches” they left out. She’d never seen bread look so bad. We got her some dinner and a much-deserved glass of wine to settle her nerves and off to bed.

TUESDAY MORNING
I woke up early with one goal, I needed the best lawyer in town regardless of cost and to meet with him/her immediately. She had work and had already missed two shifts. With what we could only assume would be a long drawn out legal battle for her freedom we needed to meet someone quickly. Neither of us has a criminal defense attorney, as we’re not criminals, so I called and spoke with the front desk of a few prominent local attorneys. None of which service Nye county and I quickly understood why. At $200-$500 per hour imagine the legal costs associated with such a trial. You want quality representation but quickly can’t afford travel costs alone. One legal office expected the legal bill to become north of $30,000. Remember most of America can’t afford bail themselves out of jail, let alone begin to defend their freedom.

I received a call back from Robert Fahrendorf, a highly recommended local criminal defense attorney and he graciously listened to me explain the situation to him. We spoke at length, and he told me that from a financial standpoint it made the most sense to hire an attorney in Nye county. There was, of course, the option of a court-appointed public defender. But when you’re talking about the freedom of a family member being in jeopardy in conjunction with a small county with a well-known history of corruption, do you honestly want to take the risk of ending up with lackluster representation or the remote possibility of collusion? I had to seriously question how far the Nye County prosecution may be willing to go to not admit a mistake had been made, was there a chance that a local defense attorney or public defender would ultimately be involved in ensuring there was a conviction? I want to make it clear that this is by no means an accusation of anything of the sort, merely something that crosses your mind when thrust into such a life-changing event. Do you trust your loved one’s freedom to an attorney you’ve never met in a city neither of you has ever been to over a charge that carries mandatory prison sentencing? Personally, that was not a decision I was willing to make.

I felt the need to take matters into my own hands. I’ve always been a logical, well-thought and well-spoken individual and I knew I could figure this out. This of course came with risk, as I’ve never studied law in any capacity and my highest level of formal education is a G.E.D., I tested out of high school to pursue my businesses at 16. It did, however, come with major advantages starting with my hourly rate. At $0/hr Brittany could certainly afford my services, and I’d be able to document the entire process with nothing happening behind closed doors. I would fight harder than anyone to ensure she remained free; I had something more to lose than just a case, my partner. I set out to gather as much information as I could, I filled out paperwork required to get my hands on every aspect of the initial warrant, her arrest, body camera footage from the arresting officers and more. I knew that when we ended up in court, we would need all available evidence. Somewhere a mistake had been made, and I had to find it at whatever cost.

I started with calls to the Nye County Recorder’s office to obtain the initial arrest warrant from 2011; I was told I needed to call the Nye County Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff’s office then explained they do not keep warrants and it may be with the District Attorney’s office. I then called Nye County District Attorney’s office and was greeted by a woman named Vanessa, and for the third time was told they didn’t keep them, the Justice Court would have it. At that point I broke, I asked her to please give me any advice she could, I was hitting dead end after dead end. As I started to explain the situation I could hear her begin to interrupt me, I knew she was legally bound to not offer any legal advice, but for some reason, she continued to listen. She gave me the benefit of the doubt that this could be the one-in-a-million case of someone being falsely arrested. She then told me she was an administrator with the District Attorney’s office and typically wouldn’t be answering the phone, I don’t know what it was that I said, or if someone was looking out for us that day but she restored my faith in humanity at that very moment. She offered me her e-mail address and told me to forward her as much information as I could, she would personally pull the file and have a detective/prosecutor take a look at it to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. I was beyond thankful and immediately sent over images of everything we had from her stint in jail along with a copy of her driver’s license along with an explanation of the situation with a heartfelt thank you for her time, it meant the world to me.

Minutes after sending the e-mail I realized this could be our only chance to prove Brittany was not the criminal she was being made out to be, before standing trial; I scrambled to think of ways to prove she wasn’t in Pahrump in the months before the 2011 warrant. I still didn’t know when the apparent crime had been committed; it could have been weeks or months before the issuance of the warrant. I needed overwhelming evidence indicating she was not there, and I needed it fast. If we missed this opportunity, we would be stuck in a legal battle that could forever change the course of our lives. I started by going as far back as I could with her online bank statements, thankfully Wells Fargo allowed us to go back as far as January 2011, I saved all 2011 statements and forwarded them on to her again explaining I would do whatever it took to prove she was not involved.

Next, I asked Brittany to contact her employers, schools, sports teams and anything else we could gather from that time. We needed proof of every shift worked; class attended, or place she had been. We needed to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt she was not in Pahrump, easier said than done when you’re talking about proving you weren’t somewhere six and a half years ago never having expected you’d need an alibi to maintain your freedom. I’d also like to thank her employer for actually sending someone into the attic to take copies of her 2011 hours worked almost immediately.

4 hours later I received a call from Brittany while she was at work, crying but with a different tone, I realized I had heard her cry more in the last day than in our entire relationship. She went on to tell me someone named Vanessa from Nye county just called and told her they had poured over the file and with the information provided, and it was quickly apparent she was indeed innocent! The deputy who originally filed the warrant had selected the wrong Brittany White in the system and started the process that became this mess. She told Brittany that all charges were being dropped, she would not need to show up to court and by Friday we would be sent corresponding paperwork. They were able to identify the correct Brittany White who has an extensive criminal history is currently in prison on another charge. You cannot imagine the joy I felt, the overwhelming sense of accomplishment that somehow by the stroke of god I had cleared her name in under 24 hours from her initial arrest. Something I had been told repeatedly could take months and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Seeing her smile again was incredible, knowing her life would return to normal. I genuinely cannot thank Vanessa enough, what she did is beyond words. Taking the time to listen to me, just a random man on the phone, proved to be a life-changing event for us. We’re often too caught up in the routine of our job, and I have to imagine in her line of work she’s lied to non-stop by criminals. Without her, we would be drowning in legal fees and in fear for Brittany’s freedom for weeks/months to come.

This woman deserves a medal, singlehandedly unraveling major mistakes that had cost a young woman her freedom in mere hours.

I don’t think life will ever be the same for Brittany; this has been a very traumatic event, just last night she commented that as she passed two police cars on the way home, she became terrified. I hadn’t considered the ongoing consequences of the situation but realized after what she went through, the way she was treated and labeled a criminal I believe she’ll forever be scared that this could happen again. She’s a strong supporter of all service members and always has been, but to think this won’t affect her day to day life would be foolish. This just goes to show how a mistake by someone in a place of authority can ultimately wreak havoc on someone’s life. We may never know what the outcome would have been had I not been able to bail her out, collect evidence, do research and eventually connect with Vanessa. I can, however, say it would have been very costly, stressful and we’d have missed much more time at work at a minimum. We even began canceling the upcoming vacation we had planned for six months as the initial court date was right in the middle of our week out of town, our first week-long vacation in almost three years of being together.

Had we been unable to post bail, find legal quality legal representation or a myriad of other things gone right this story may have ended with a hard working innocent young woman being convicted of a felony and spend a minimum of a year in prison. Her life forever changed, relationships lost, career ruined and much, much more. Simply unimaginable.

How we can prevent this from ever happening again? There needs to be a system of checks and balances when warrants are issued. Mistakes like this cannot happen, the citizens deserve better, and people need to be held accountable. When you’re in a position of authority, specifically life-changing authority, you must be held to a higher standard. You absolutely cannot make a mistake like this, you hold the keys to someone’s future, and you must take that responsibility seriously every single time, without fail. We get but one life to live and your failure can destroy all that we have. This work should be double, even triple checked to ensure accuracy.

At the time the warrant was signed by the acting District Attorney Brian T. Kunzi through his deputy, Tierra Jones. Tierra Jones has since been appointed to the Eighth Judicial District Court here in Nevada. Take that in for a moment, the individual who filed the warrant that lead to the false felony arrest of my girlfriend is now a judge presiding over criminal cases in our state. This just goes to show that mistakes can be made at any level. This begs the question, was this her only mistake? Additionally, former District Attorney Brian T. Kunzi, did you not actually review the information provided to you for this warrant? Did you just sign on the dotted line without verifying the information provided and change her future? I understand those that made mistakes may have done so inadvertently, that doesn’t however change the harsh reality that they’ve had a massive impact on people’s lives. It’s unfortunate the current members of Nye County are stuck cleaning up this mess, thus far they’ve been extremely helpful.

I will continue to update this article as it develops and eventually share the video documentary with the world.

In closing, she is home safe trying to return to a normal life. Be sure to hold those you love close; you never know when life can change in an instant. I ask that you share this article with your friends and family, mistakes are made that ultimately change lives in an adverse way and we as a people need to be aware of that. We must to fight for the justice of those that are falsely accused.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

Emory Peterson and Brittany White

We’ve received the paperwork dropping all charges, thank god, the nightmare is over.

We now must begin to put the pieces back together, have her arrest expunged and her good name restored.

https://www.americanthoughtproject.com/guilty-until-proven-innocent/