Port Sonoma

Mitch and I didn’t buy fancy clothes, jewelry or cars, so there was no tangible proof we took bribes. We denied everything and the charges were dropped. Our supervisor, Sergeant Francis believed us because we had never been in trouble before.
After we were re-instated and went back to Vice, another grower offered us a bribe to look the other way when we busted him. We knew it was a trap, and refused the money. We reported to Francis that the grower had tried to bribe us.
Even though the arrest had been wiped from our records, it left a stain. The next year, the Supervisors voted a ten percent cutback in the Sheriff’s Department’s funding while they increased health benefits for themselves. This meant six deputy positions had to be cut.
The most recent hires took the first three cuts. Mitch and I were the next two, and they also ‘retired’ Francis. He had worked so many overtime hours that he was one of the County’s highest paid employees. While he was only two years away from his mandatory retirement age, the Supervisors figured they could save a little money if they eliminated his sergeant’s position.
I began to apply to police and sheriff’s departments throughout California. A lot of cops had been accused of bribery. It had become standard operating procedure for defense attorneys to paint arresting officers in a bad light to jurors. Most of the officers’ charges were dropped for lack of evidence, like mine had been. But for some reason I couldn’t get past the initial application and schedule an interview. I knew I had made a mistake, but I had learned my lesson and would never do