Kyle Overmyer: The Sheriff Who Became the Inmate

0:00Labor Day deals are looking good at lows. Save $10 on one gallon cans and $50 on five gallon pales of select interior paint via rebate. Plus, get $2.5 court with three court mums for just $8. A fresh look and savings? Even better. Labor Day deals are on now at lows. In store and online, valid through 9.9. Wausplies last. Mumsize is varied by location and excluded Laskin Hawaii. See story lows dot com for more details. Before we get started, I wanted to let you in on a little secret. What you're about to hear is only part of the conversation. Every week, we keep talking over on Patreon, where you'll find exclusive bonus episodes behind the scenes footage after I show conversations with my guests and personal stories from my life that I don't share anywhere else. If you love misunderstood, Patreon is where you'll get the full experience. Just head on over to patreon.com slash miss understood with Rachel Yucatel or click the link in the show notes.

1:00I'd love to have you join us. Some breaking news out of Sandusky County tonight. Sheriff Kyle Overmire has been indicted on close to four dozen criminal charges. They were all waiting for the new house car. He brings me in cell, pulls out some pills, and he's like, first ones on being next ones on you. I said, you're going to be a first one or a next one. I'm done. Before Kyle Overmire ever wore an inmate uniform, he wore a badge. He worked narcotics, bought kilos of cocaine undercover, put drug dealers behind bars. By 34, he had become one of the youngest sheriffs in Ohio. Then a legitimate prescription for painkillers became something else. Kyle wasn't using pills just for physical pain anymore. He says they made everything disappear. They erased all my problems. Financial, marital, film with this lawsuit, the totality, everything. That was the magic wine, though, waving my brain to say, I'm OK. I'm OK.

2:01But the sheriff tasked with fighting drugs was now desperately searching for them himself. He doctor-shopped, he stole percussed from his own father, and then he began going through prescription drugs surrendered to law enforcement. I'd come in my own office at the sheriff's office. And I would barricade that door, put it all on the floor, and I would sift through it and find what I needed. For years, Kyle believed he could keep the two lives separate until one phone call and did everything. And so Kyle, you got to turn yourself down. I said, what's up? He's like, you got a 43-calculine document looking at 15 years in prison. And today, the county sheriff was arraigned in court. The man who had spent his career booking criminals was now being booked himself. He booked me at my own jail, too. And somehow, Kyle still believed he could beat it. Dylan looks at me, and he says, got a question, Dad. I said, what? Am I going to see you for dinner tonight? I said, my famous last words were racial. I got this. It got me. By sentencing, the denial was gone. Standing in front of his community,

3:03Kyle finally said the words he had spent years avoiding. I said, I'm an addict. I'm sorry. I take responsibility for everything. She says, no problem. I'll give you the best treatment, the best in the state of Ohio. I'm sent to you to four years in prison. He was the sheriff. Then he became the inmate. This is Kyle Overmyer's story. Kyle, thank you so much for joining me today on Misunderstood. Where are you? I'm just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Oh, amazing. OK. Well, how was it doing there? How was your summer going? It's been super hot. I know you're a Florida person. So, odd humidity has a few showers. But better than 90s lately. So I love it. It's beautiful. OK. I'm happy to hear that. So let's get right into this. Your I was just talking to you about this. I finally got your book, Prison, Prodigy, Power, Prison, and a Purpose Reborn.

4:04I'm in the middle of reading it, loving it. Everyone should get it. We'll talk at the end about how people can order it from you directly and get assigned copy, which I think is amazing. But I want to start at the beginning. What first drew you into law enforcement in general? Well, but my father, my father, he had 38 plus years in law enforcement. As we'll find out, he was actually a captain at the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office where then I ended up being the elected sheriff. So I was always drawn to it. But my love was actually for art. I actually went and studied at a Toledo Museum of Art for two years. Oh, no way. But I think, yeah, I was going to be a starving artist so I dropped out. Wow. What did you like? Like what about art? Did you like? Well, I did it a lot in high school. I painted, I draw. I still paint today. I like acrylic. I like oil, pencil drawing. I love it all.

5:04I'm an avid art guy. I'm not going to lie. Do you do abstract or do you like to do portraits? Or I do both abstract and portraits. And usually my abstract then has a name, which then just tied into a true meaning behind it all. Oh, I love that. I'm a pretty deep guy. Oh, I love that. OK, so what, at what point did you decide, OK, I need to take a different path and start getting good at something to make some money? Yeah, I just, I felt lost after two years at the university at Toledo. And I was like, I'm kind of wasting money, wasting time. So I went back and I just, I actually I worked at a couple factories. I was always then into bodybuilding. I competed in bodybuilding. So I even got a part-time job at a gym. So my gym membership was free. I got to work out for free. I had to both the best world. So yeah, and then I tried to eventually figure it out. So I went to my dad and I said, you know what, dad, I think I want to go into law enforcement. You know, you've done a lot of good things in the community.

6:05You know, provided for the family. And you know what he said? Forget about it. Don't do it. Why? Because he's too many headaches to look at it today. Yeah. You know, law enforcement. You know, it's really hard to, you know, be a first responder. And it seems like, you know, they put a lot of heavy burden on themselves, you know, for the problems in society. And they don't get, you know, compensated very well for it. Right. Right. Of course. So what's interesting is that you end up going on this path. And I'm curious about your relationships with kids in the neighborhood, getting in trouble, like, drugs, like what was your relationship with all of that before you went on this path? So growing up, my parents sent me to a private Catholic school. They kept me out of trouble off the streets. I played sports in high school. I was a football player. I was a wrestler. And I was in their city boxer, too. So, and there were some of the guys, you know, on the streets that, you know, we're into boxing and doing other things,

7:05you know, on the streets, too, as well, that would cross over. But growing up, I mean, experimented with alcohol, no drugs, never didn't touch any, you know. When I went to college, I started, you know, I spoke to Mayor Wana, but that was the extent of it all. Right. So, and as a child of a father that's in law enforcement, I would have, I would assume that was hard for you to get in trouble, like, you needed to walk the straight narrow a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I, I feared him because I didn't, I didn't want to feel the wrath. And I respected what he did. And how bad would that look if I was out of cause and trouble in my father's and law enforcement, you know? Okay. So then you start, you get the training. And what is the training, by the way, it's like a school. I went through the police academy. Back then it was like six, eight months. It was very short term. I graduated, then I got, I got out and I went and got a job at Sondusky County Sheriff's Office. And my first job was working in corrections for four years, as well, kid. Wow. And what is that in town?

8:06Tending to the inmates, overseeing them, day-to-day basis, you know, booking them in, you know, basically overseeing them based, so there's no problems. Right. So you saw that lifestyle of the, of both sides, being the, the corrections officer and then seeing the inmate and the difference between the two of you, obviously. I did. And but it was interesting who's a lot of my childhood friends ended up in there, you know, because they were in there for drug trafficking or theft or some, you know, criminal activity. And I, I found myself setting down and, you know, conversing with some of these individuals and starting to understand what was going on in the streets and, you know, what was going on with them, you know. Yeah. And I think it was good education for me in my, my future path of law enforcement. Right. For sure. I read that you did a lot of undercover work running dozens of informants under aliases. What was that like as a young officer? So yeah, so I moved up quickly. I was, I was married my first wife, Meli during that time

9:09and had two young kids. I eventually I went back to college and obtained two college degrees, criminal justice and business administration degree as well, because I wanted to further myself from actually the local level and we'll talk about that. But with the undercover stuff, I started doing small time, you know, corner street deals. And then eventually I moved my way up being deputized by DEA and working undercover and actually purchasing from the cartel. Purchasing up to 17 to 20 kilos of cocaine directly from the cartel. So how does that work going on in cover? Because I'm going to tell you something. I worked, not worked. I, when I lived in New York City, I had grand jury duty, which by the way was the most fun thing in the world. Everyone's like trying to get off of jury duty, grand jury duty. I learned so much stuff. I was so in it. I was like somebody from 12 angry men. I was like trying to, you know, like just persuade these other people to vote a certain way or whatever.

10:11And a lot of it was about the undercover world, which I never understood. So these guys would come in who are the undercover cops who look like complete drug addicts. And I was like, how do these people work as cops? How do they go home and have a normal life when they look like this and when they're so embedded into a lot of it was this drug world, which was around 42nd Street. And it was the, you know, the sex workers and they had all these code words for heroin. And I thought, you know, maybe as an undercover cop, you get a pass and you're allowed to do drugs with people. How does it work being undercover? You can, if you know, you get forced to. Luckily, I never did. There was a point where somebody did want me to try some math. And actually the informant stepped in and he used it instead of me, which kudos to him, you know. I had that relationship with the informant. It was, it was like built a friendship, so to speak.

11:14And then when I was working by multiple kilos of cocaine, I went by the name of Scotty Pitt. That's my, that was my, my name. Nice. A lot of people know it. And if you look in the book, there's a picture of me. They cut some of it off with me with several kilos of cocaine in front of me. Do you have like a crazy story from working undercover? Like that? Did you always think you were about to get found out or killed? Or like, what, I mean, what was that like? No, you know, I hate to say it. I'm a pretty good actor, you know, I'm not acting today. I'm telling the truth, Rachel, no disrespect. But no, I, you know, it was interesting. Everybody always asked me that. And I was good at what I did. And even the agents used to laugh at me because, you know, we would order up that cocaine, it would go coming from Columbia, then into Mexico up through the pipeline. And what we do, we read, we'd write out a, um, storage unit. And I was working with a guy that was direct with a cartel who's turned in for a minute,

12:14and I partnered with, he was a Hispanic gentleman. And they would roll in the truck. We put the garage door down of the storage unit and break it down. They'd usually conceal it in the tire. And then off the guy would go for, and go stay in a hotel for a week. And we would end up bringing money to him and away he'd go. Wow. It was funny. I mean, there was a time where he reached out to me during the week, wanted me to hook him up with a bunch of women and stuff and come over and party at the hotel. And I kind of side-stabbed that. But, uh, But as you're doing this, how do you go home at night to your family and your kids and turn off that mentality of being deeply embedded in that? No, but it was hard. I can remember, you know, eating dinner with my wife and children and my phones, you know, blowing up. And I'm setting up drug deals while I'm eating dinner, you know? Where I met my son's baseball games and I got a step aside and do business, you know? I can remember being at the mall one day with my family. And then I see the guy that I partnered with,

13:16the Hispanic guy, with his family. Oh, wow. And he plums over, shakes hands, hugs me. And my life's like, oh, who was that? And I said, he's just a guy, you know? Right. Right. Were you not allowed to share a lot of the information? No, I couldn't. No, I couldn't. You know, did she know you were undercover, though? Yeah, she just didn't know the extent of it, you know? And I just thought it would be better to keep her in arms way about it. Got it. Okay. So the reason I asked about all this is because I was curious about if you had to try drugs and this is where you started. We end up coming to find out, which is in your book, your drug use started with something as innocuous as an injury and starting with Vicodin, correct? Correct. I broke both of my ankles during childhood sports. And that's, I was diagnosed with arthritis and they put me on 105 Vicodin a month. Wow. And what age did that start at? That was probably about 37, because I was sheriff at 34, which I was youngest in the state of Ohio at one time.

14:17And I was young. And then yeah, it was about 3637. They put me on the Vicodin. Okay. So it didn't start till after you became sheriff. All right. So let's, let's pull back for a second. So at 34, you became what you just said, the youngest sheriff in Ohio's history. What did that moment feel like and how did you even get to that point? Well, I had become very close with the current sheriff. And yet there was even a conversation that I was actually going to go work for the federal government. And due to my productivity, I was known as a road patrol guy before I became detective and working narcotics. I took a lot of drug dealers off the streets from interdiction just by mere traffic stops. And and even the, I mean, my reputation was on the street with the drug dealers, you know, when when Kyle's working, you better just be aware because he don't play. Right. And the sheriff called me one day and he made a proposal. He said, Hey, I hear you're going to leave me and go to the feds. You know, and he goes, I said, yeah, he said, I don't want you to go.

15:17What can we make happen here to keep Kyle over my area at the sheriff's office? I said, I don't know. So we offered me detective spot and I said, no, he goes, I'll do better. I'll put sergeant stripes on you right here. And you'll be a detective sergeant. I was only like 27, 28. I was super young. And then within a year because of my productivity and it came at Christmas time, he called me down to his office and he threw me a captain's badge and said, you're a captain now after a year, which that wasn't heard of, you know? I'm one of these kind of guys. I'm not like, I'm not like a flashlight. I'm like a laser. I get I get zeroed in on everything. And once I get my mind, some Rachel, I go and I get it done. So what is your good? Good. So that's how it all started though. That's how it all went. So, so what did you think your life was going to look like at this point? Because we see a deep turn a couple of years later. And we go down a completely different path. But I just want to hear like your feelings at 34. Here you are.

16:17You're now the youngest sheriff. You have a lot of power. People are respecting you. Did you love your job? I mean, are you loving life at this minute? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And and how I got to be sheriff. So my the sheriff started grooming me and getting me involved with the political game, which it was Republican Central Committee up there. He got me on that. I was on an organized crime board and he would always talk to me and say, look, you're the next sheriff and you know, I said, look, it's a long time down the road. You're only 60 some years old. We even talked about it on a Wednesday. I never forget. He said, don't ever back down of something happens to me. I want you to be sheriff. That Sunday, he passed away. And so yeah, crazy. And we were talking about it. And then I had to go up against my chief deputy. Like out of nowhere. You had a heart attack. I don't know where. At a heart attack. And sick. So then I had to go face to face against my chief deputy who was above me 60 years old and 30 plus experience. And a well-known businessman on top of it.

17:17And then I was selected by the Republican Central Committee unanimously to be the new sheriff. And sorry for my ignorance, but how does that work? Do you have to run on a certain platform about something or? That was an emergency appointment. So I had to go against him. And it took several days and we had to get up and speak in front of everyone. And then we were voted on and I got it. But then I had to run for re-election every four years after that. Got it. Okay. So you have this job. I'm assuming you're doing really well at it. People are loving you. You're loving your job. You're married. You've got two kids, right? So you're at your addiction like you mentioned, started with a legitimate prescription for old injuries. At what point did you realize this was becoming a problem? Well, how it all started with the problem. During that time, we had a shooter, well, a man with a gun. We had one of those calls and I'll never forget. Like at a school or where? No, it was actually in a home and he was not going out without a fight.

18:21He was a threat and a kill his family. Okay. And I got a call. I was with my family and I never forget getting the call. And I said, get the SWAT team out there. I'll be out there. So I had to drop my family off of it. I'll never forget getting off the phone. My daughter, Michaela, says, that doesn't sound good. My famous last word, I said, my famous last word, I said, I got this. Okay, don't worry. I've done this before. We go out and I meet with my SWAT team and we're conversing, trying to make phone calls, you know, use the blowhorn. Can't get his attention. And I said, guys, we're going to go in. This throw flashbang, but I'm going in with you guys. And something else I didn't mention. So I graduated from the FBI Academy for SWAT too. So I was on the SWAT team as well. And I was sending my men in anywhere that I wouldn't go. So we throw the flashbang in and we go in it. And he points a shot on us. And you know the rest, we had to take his life. And the family turns against us.

19:24I take care of my guys with mental health help. Me, I don't, I'm too big for that. I'm the sheriff. I'm going to go on with business and do business. And then it got so bad that we had to go in front of the grand jury to make sure it was a good shoot. It was the family protested twice. I'll never forget one of the family that he was threatening to kill. Yeah, it was protesting. Yeah, wow. And so they turned and they had there was a front page picture. Somebody holding up a side. Brian's blood is on your hands over my own. I'll never forget. And that hit, hit home. And you know, that was, I didn't want him to lose his life. That's not what we wanted. And then I was slapped with a $20 million lawsuit. Wow. Okay. Which ended up eventually in a federal trial. And we, we won. And I won. And you were vindicated. Was. So that starts a little bit of my during that time, you know, the 105 Vikings just didn't last as much.

20:27And then we live near Lake. Wait, time out. Didn't last as much because I'm not someone who's ever. I've taken Viking in before. For an injury as well. Yeah. I've, I've never understood how people get addicted to it. Because it must not affect me the same way it affects other people. So explain to people that are listening that don't know how you get addicted and what that feeling is. Why, why wasn't it working? And what was it working for? If you were talking about your ankles and the pain and the arthritis, now, why do you need more? And how is that affecting your brain or what's the addiction? Well, you know, some, the mental pain was far worse than the mental pain. And what viked it in? And then I'll talk about I graduated the percuss at Nazi cotton. What, what those did for me, Rachel. Hey, what's up guys? It's Hayley Bailey. Okay, I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads. So I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi. Because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst.

21:29I get to add free, I get back room play, and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube premium. Try it now for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Try a eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. That's a mouthful. They erased all my problems. You know, I just made you feel like you were floating. They just made you feel like you didn't have to think about things. What, what's the feeling? Yeah, it erased the problems from it. Whether it's financial, marital, dealing with this lawsuit, okay, all the totality, everything. That's what it did. It did away with everything, Rachel. That was the magic wand, wave in my brain to say, I'm okay. I'm okay. And that's where the 105 started a dwindle. And then we have a second incident where two brothers and their friend, they go out in the mouth of the river and they're playing on the ice. They fall through. We go out and respond, including myself.

22:30And they drown in front of us. So terrible. I'm so sorry. I take care of my guys. You know, I'm proactive, but always take care of my people. You didn't take care of me, Rachel. And they got worse. And I, you know, I felt responsible. I'm like, why couldn't we save them? And it was, I mean, it was tough. It was. So then that's when things really spun out of control. And then the doctor's shopping started. I started going between multiple doctors, you know, and I graduated percussette. My parents, they both have arthritis. So I'd go over and steal from them too. It got so bad. I knew when my dad got his percussette refilled. I'd volunteer to go get it. And then I talk about this a lot. You know how there's a stapler on the bag when you go to a pharmacy. I carried a stapler in my car. So he would never know I stole his pills. Wow. I knew. So you would give him like half a bottle as opposed to a whole bottle. Right. Yeah, he didn't think nothing of it. And you know, and then I had to find another way to do it.

23:34And when you're in a full blown addiction, you manipulate, cheat, lie, and you become very creative to get what you need. We have take back boxes. I don't know if you have them down there in Florida where they dispose of them. So I went around, picked them up from each police department. And because we were the hub. Explain what that is for people that don't know. So they're staged at pharmacies and also law enforcement agencies that come dump your old prescription drugs that you no longer want. Because they say do not flush them down the toilet because it's not good for the water. Oh, okay. And do people actually do this? You get a big amount of drugs that get put in these take back boxes. They do. And it was a beautiful thing for me. Right. Obviously. But also, you know, what about the stuff included in this box is when you guys are doing a drug raid or whatever in your collecting drugs from drug dealers. Is that what's going in those boxes also? No, no, that goes that's separate. That's evidence. I never mess with that. Okay.

24:34So evidence is a totally different thing. Okay. So this is people volunteering voluntarily surrendering drugs. Okay, got it. Yes. And so I, you know, I pick them up. I can remember going through our own drug take back box and find a percussette. I mean, it was so bad. And how to explain it, Rachel. I'd come in my own office at the sheriff's office. And I would barricade that door. And I would be like a kid after Halloween, trigger treatment, put it all on the floor. And I would sift through it and find what I needed. Wow. So at this point, are you feeling like you're living a double life? Because you're running a department. You're in the field like talk about that double life on a daily basis that you're going through. Well, every morning's I woke up. And I always kept my gun above the washer and dryer high from my parent or from my, my children, because I didn't want them to get the hold of it. And I'd hide my stash behind there. But that would be my first move every morning, Rachel, would be to go get, to get my day started with those percussettes.

25:34Wow. And how did they, how did they affect your work? Do you think? They didn't, but they kept me going. And I would wait to really hit them when I would get home because that's where it really got me, you know, at the end of the day. Right. Because your mind is now not focused on the daily tasks. You're at home and your mind is running more and you got to get yourself to sleep or you got it. I know that feeling of you, you, you, the lights go off, your head goes down on the pillow and you're stuck with your own thoughts. So to, I'm assuming that would have been a terrible time of. Absolutely. And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm sober now, but my mind's still like that. Yeah. In positive things, you know, today. No, of course. And I think that's obviously normal. I mean, even for people that don't have an addiction problem, but they have stress in their life or anything going on, that's the time when you're alone with your thoughts, you know. So what do you think got you caught? Like what was there, was there a first moment where someone started to accuse you of something

26:36or that your behavior was erratic or you weren't responding to things in the way that you should have been? February 3rd, 2015, I go to the pharmacy to refill my, my bike it in and, Leslie, she was a pharmacist. They all knew me. I built a relationship, you know, because I'm the sheriff, everybody knows me. And she says, Hey, I'm going to talk to you this side real quick. And I thought, wow, she's going to talk to me about some criminal activity, somebody doing something. And she looks at me and she says, Kyle, you're done. And I said, what do you mean I'm done Leslie? She's like, you're going between doctors and you're getting opiates and I'm red flagging you and I got to call each doctor and cut you off. Oh, wow. So hearing that, I'm assuming that made you angry. I was terribly angry, but I was sick too. Yeah. Yeah. It's like sick to my stomach like I've been found out too. Right. Now at this point, does that threat mean that you're going to be found out at your place of work

27:39or it just means within the community of the doctors, they're going to know they've got to stop? Yeah. So look, so the both happened. Well, both first of all the doctors, but then I went home that day and I flushed my last viking down the toilet because I had to do it. But I was able to do this and detox myself because my wife was a school teacher. She go off to school. My kids would go to school as well. And I would go to get my uniform and drive off and pretend like I was going to work. And then I'd turn around, come back, drive back, put my vehicle in the garage and put it down and then I would lay sick for days. That's how I detox myself. Wow. And so what do people think you were doing as opposed to being at work? How'd you get out of that? They don't care because being the sheriff, you could do whatever you want. Okay, so they didn't even know where you are. They were going to ask questions. No, no, no. I wasn't held accountable, you know, at work. Okay, so that's interesting because I think a lot of addicts would have gotten mad, gone to another state, figured out how to get more,

28:40you know, I don't know. You dealt with a lot of criminals and a lot of drug dealers. I'm assuming you would have gone to one of them and said, I need this on the on the black market or whatever you call it. Well, I couldn't hit the streets because every dope boy out there knew me. Right. And I couldn't do the streets and I wasn't going to go do needles, you know. Right. And you know, so but a lot of things crossed my mind, Rachel. I mean, you know, I'm a full blown addict. I still wanted pills. I wanted that fix. And so, you know, I had to run every four years and so was getting ready for my next run. And I thought it was going to come up again. To be sheriff again. Instead, in the primary, I went up against a guy and it's an interesting story. I had a I had a Twitter account. And I went by a young sheriff on my Twitter. And they bring this stuff out, which blew me away. I was like, where are they coming from this? So at this point, wait, before there's no one really knew, it was the pharmacist and maybe the doctor got it.

29:43Okay. You got. So they come out and I go by young sheriff and the newspaper article about me following porn stars and rappers and porn stars following me back. And they make like this big, you know, what's wrong with the sheriff? Why is he like this? It turned around and backfired. It made me more popular. Got it. Where people were like coming up to me saying, I like that you're real. You're not some stiff, you know what I mean? For some square. Right. And it was kind of like, okay, my wife was terribly mad, but whatever, you know. And I ended up winning the primary like, I got 62% of the boats. And I went against my neighbor. He ran against me who was a police chief. And I blew him out of the water. Wow. Wow. And I'm like, okay, this is good. Right. But you're still hiding this former addiction. And now at this point, are you clean? Have you done the withdrawal and you're good? I'm clean, but look, the mental health thing is still there. I'm still struggling thinking about it.

30:43And then I get a phone call from our county prosecutor a couple of months after the election. So I go down a meeting and I said, what's going on? And he says, hey, are you addicted to the pain killers? I look at him. I said, I'll go. I'll pee in the cup right now. I'll show you. I'm clean. What do you talk about? He says, all I'm going to tell you, the word is that you're addicted. And the attorney general's office is going to be looking at you. So, okay. I said, let him look. Knowing that, I knew he was right. Right. I get on the horn on the horn right away and make a call. And I called my call guy and who was a childhood friend who was an attorney. I said, look, I need to retain you. Here's what's going on. So, I'm confused by that, though. Because if it was in your past, wouldn't that make you more relatable to be like, yeah, okay, let me tell you something. I did have an addiction in the past. I kicked it. I still remain sheriff. We're good. It doesn't affect me now. Like, forget the whole mental health thing. But couldn't that have been your angle?

31:45It could have been, but not when you hear why. Okay, tell me. So, this goes on. I'm campaigning and doing my thing. And then our county fair is always a big day for all the constituents and political figures. I'm there in my uniform. August 23rd, 2013, 16th. Ribbon cutting, congressman, everything. We're doing everything. Everything's great. I'm there shaking hands and, you know, it's like a little celebration. Right. And your wife is back to speaking to you after all the horn star. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, at that point, yeah. Yeah. And then I get a phone call at 9630. From my attorney, they contacted him and he said, Kyle, you got to turn yourself in. I said, what's up? He's like, you got a 43 count indictment. Looking at 15 years in prison for Dr. Shappen, theft of drugs, theft in office. So you got to turn yourself in. Wow.

32:46Wait, now break that down for me. I actually didn't know that Dr. Shappeng is illegal. I thought that just makes you an addict. And you can just get in trouble and lose your job and all that stuff. But that's illegal. It is. It's a, it's a, it's a chartable offense. Yes. Wow. Okay. And what were the other? You're manipulating you can't be getting a controlled substance of the same from, from the same multiple doctors. Got it. Okay. I thought usually your insurance flags that anyways, but I'm assuming you paid out a pocket. No, I had insurance, but it didn't flag it. It didn't flag it. Interesting. Okay. So what were the other things you're being charged with? Um, theft of drugs, which was a take back. And there was a theft of, how do you know about the take back? They put two and two together. They threw it in there. Not in a, in, it was what it was. And then they got me for theft and office of some things that I misappropriated that I shouldn't spend money on. Got it. And I took, you know, I did what I did. Okay. You know, when you're an addict, your, your life's out of control.

33:47Yeah, you do whatever it takes. You do. You do. So, so all right, you have these, you, you find out that this is going to be presented to you or whatever you want to be charged with these things. You continue to run, right? Well, I had, I got booked and I went into jail overnight. Oh, okay. How did that go for me? They booked me at my own, my own jail. Right. But they housed me in a different one. So the next morning, I had a $150,000 bond. And so I bonded out and I kept running for sheriff. What made, what made you think you could keep running for sheriff? Yeah. Because I'm out of quitter. As you'll find out with the story, um, I just, because, you know, what my ego was so big, Rachel. Right. And, you know, I thought, you know, when I'm going to be untouchable, I'm going to put this back on everybody else that people are after me. They want my job. Somebody had already ran against me. Somebody was going to run against me again in the, in the general that it's a witch hunt. That's what I said. So you're, you're not taking any responsibility. You're blame.

34:47I know. Yeah. Okay. You're blaming it on people. This is a witch hunt. People just don't want you to win. Absolutely. Okay. And, and how is the public feeling about this? How's your family feeling? Are they on your side? Are they believing you? They are. And, and it was interesting. I was going out doing debates and I'm, I'm a great debater. I'm a great, I, you know, I speak all the time. And, um, I would march in parades and it was crazy. People were coming off porches hugging me like crying and like, I'm praying for you and I know this isn't true. We love you. And I was a great sheriff. I was good at the community. You know, I was good for what they wanted. And, um, then, um, my son, his birthday was coming up at time. He was, um, 12. He was going to be 13 and we, we went through a, um, hundred safety course together, um, a few months prior. And he wanted a crossbow for his birthday. His birthday was coming up in November. So I went out ball one. Well, once you know two weeks later, I get a call from my attorney that the prosecutor called him and said,

35:50Hey, um, we believe Kyle had purchased a, um, a crossbow. And I did. I said, yeah, he's like, well, they're going to try to violate your, your, your bond now too. So I go and I'll never forget this day. It was November 3rd, 2016. I was taking my son to school. It was the day of court and Dylan looks at me and he says, got a question, dad, I said, what? Am I going to see you for dinner tonight? I know you're on the court. I said, my famous last words, Rachel, I got this. Wow, it got me. Wow. So what did you, what did you learn that day? I was, I was done. They banged me. I was done, Rachel. And, uh, that's where then I went to, um, it's, uh, Miriam County, Tri County, jail, just a couple of weeks ago. And actually talked to the people that were there that booked me in. And, uh, I, I, that's where I surrendered to my addiction and started to talk about it.

36:53Went to my first A meeting, which consisted of three inmates, one of the inmates being me. Started to talk to my parents. Not much with my wife. Things were really getting rocky and I couldn't really admit to my kids that they were too young, you know, that their, their father who was the sheriff and they looked up to as a father, you know, I'm an addict. Right. I was a one addict. And over time then, I worked back and forth with my attorney and we struck a plea deal of, uh, 15 counts out of the 43. Wow. Okay. So, so just for people that are listening so they don't get confused that day you went to court, that was, that was just to find out what you were being accused of. And then they were sending you off. There was no trial. There was no. Well, okay. They just, they just, they revoked my bond. That they did. They got me. And so when I go back then, um, December 13th, that's when I went back for my sentencing. 2016, I'll never forget. I mean, it was wall to wall with news media. It was high profile case.

37:54They even went as far as having a live camera on my house during the, during to show it live. And, uh, I was broken. It's the first time I'd cried in years, Rachel. I was at my rock bottom of all. And I turned around to the whole community. Everybody that I'd be trade. And I apologize to everybody crying. I mean, it, I had to do it though. I had to take accountability. Right. And then I turned around to face the judge. And she says, what do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Overmire? I said, I'm an addict. I'm sorry. I take responsibility for everything. Um, and you know, I love my children. And I, and I shouldn't have done this. And, uh, she says, well, you don't love your children. For one thing, you're a narcissist, you're no good, you're a liar. And she just went on and, you know, I was, I was broken enough. And she goes, what do you, what do you want out of this? And I said, I need treatment. I'm still struggling every day.

38:56She says, no problem. I'll give you the best treatment, the best in the state of Ohio. I'm sent to you to four years in prison. I thought, why me? Hmm. How am I going to do this? Right. But now I know why me. I figured it out. Now Rachel, but they take me from there. I go to a holding jail until, and I'll never forget. I call and to tell my wife that I, uh, got four years. And then she says, yep, I know. And you also got a mistress too. And what, what do you mean? She says, well, on top of talking about, you get sent to four years, they're playing your jail phone calls to your girlfriend. Kyle. Okay. So tell me about that. You want to talk about a double life? I had a way double life. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It was hard. And that's how my kids found out too. Wow. And it was really tough because

39:57being a, um, a high profile case, from there when I was sentenced to prison, they took me to a, um, graft in Ohio, where's the, where the intake is. And they, then they put me in solitary confinement for 30 days. I was in the hole for 30. Well, is that because they knew that you were going to have such a hard time being in there because you had come from being in a position of, correct. Okay. Right. And unfortunately, it was the toughest time. It was during Christmas, you know? And so I tried to make one phone call my kids and I got disconnected. Wow. And you know, during that time, I thought it was the worst part of my prison sentence, but it was the best. Why is that? I figured out who I was going to be. I could have got out Rachel. I could have been the greatest drug trafficker around. I mean, I knew the tricks of the trade. I knew the people and I knew I was going to meet more people while I was incarcerated. Totally. Or I was going to turn this into something good and positive. It would be a great father, you know, and be a grandfather and eventually another, you know, a husband. Because I knew I was going to get divorced. Yeah. And, um, I believe being in there,

41:00isolation creates elevation in your mind, you know, and it took me to a whole new level. And I don't like to preach about things, but it got me to start a true relationship with God. Right. So I did. And you know, even though I was raised Catholic for all those years, I never had a true relationship. But to go through something to your hardest in life, forces you closer to what you need to be with. Right. I believe that. Right. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads so you can watch without Wi-Fi, background play, so you can lock your phone and it still plays, baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free. Yes, I said it ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. So I'm curious, you know, you always hear or you see it in the movies,

42:02you hear kind of some people talk about it, but you, having been a person who put people in jail, now you're in jail. What was, what is solitary confinement? Like, what was your experience on a 24-hour basis? The only time you know it's time to eat, you hear the wheel, hit on those concrete floors and triggers you. You like, Pavlov, the the doll ringing the bell and you salivate. That's what it's all about. Wow. It's dark in there. Are there windows? Very small one. Okay, so you could tell if it's day or night. Yes, but it's dark in there all the time. Okay. And there's no clock. And there's no clock. And do you hear anything? Like, can you hear the guys next to you at all? Oh, you can hear them scream and holler and there was a lot of gang members in there in Cleveland. I knew there was a bunch of, they're known for heartless felons in Cleveland, Ohio. A lot of those guys were in there screaming all night. It was what it was, you know what? It's screaming what? Because they're mentally ill or because they want what what are they screaming? They just want to cause trouble.

43:03Got it. They don't care. And are allowed to have a book? You know, pardon? Are you allowed to have a book? Now they didn't give me no books. So you had to sit in the dark for essentially 24 hours. Do you get to come out at all? No. What about to shower? There's a little shower in your in your in your little square in there. Okay. And a toilet. Then a toilet. Yeah. And then what do they feed you? The basics. Some eating food. Let me tell you something racial. Don't ever go to prison. I don't think I don't plan to. You probably probably wouldn't like it. The food's terrible. That's why you have to be creative. And also there was times when I get past this 30 days, you know, prison guards would throw their food away. We get it out of the garbage and remake it and make it into something for ourselves. Wow. Okay. I ate out of trash cans. Wow. So, but how do you keep your mind busy? I mean, if I had to sit in my in this room for 24 hours for 30 days,

44:07I don't know how I would. I don't know how you keep your mind busy the whole time. Hope. Hope about my my children. What I'm going to do. I tried to think about the most positive things. And what I did is think about what I was going to do when I got out. And it was exactly what I'm doing. You're going to think I'm playing Pinocchio in my nose is growing, but I'm telling you, Rachel, it's just the things I thought about. Yeah. I don't know. You know, the detail in your story that stops me every time is that you ended up serving time in the same prison system that you used to send people to as sheriff. Like to me, I that I can't, that must have been crazy. So how did people treat you? How did the corrections officers treat you? And then how did the inmates treat you when you finally were out of the, you know, the solitary confinement? So I went to protective custody for a short time. Mm-hmm. And as soon as I got off the bus, there was somebody, a guy who was an ex-gain member. He was there and he coaxed me into a cell.

45:08They were all waiting for me. They knew I was coming. And he brings me in cell. He's like, I know this could be some tough time. So I got something for you. So he pulls out some pills and he's like, first ones on being, next ones on you. I said, you're going to be a first one or a next one. I'm done. So I set the tone right away. Wow. And then I did some, I did a little bit of time and protective custody and I hated it because there's controlled movement and some of the people in there. You just don't want to be around. And so I went to the ward and I signed out and I went to gender pop with everybody. Did you recognize a lot of these guys? Was this anyone that you had put away? And one of the things in prison that had happened, somebody will try you. And I had a gang member try me and it was a bad day for him. It was a bad day for him. Okay.

46:08I handled. I handled. I'm a nice guy, Rachel. But I, you know, I have a former wrestler and boxer and I always, I've always been into work and I was so, and I'm not, I'm, when I was even a detective, I got a few fights in the streets too. Yeah. So you, I'm not a pretty flight. So that is a real thing that when you're in prison, you've got to kind of prove yourself that first time you've got to win a fight and then people know not to fuck with you again or at this point are people like, this is, this is a cop. We're going to fuck with him and we're going to try and kill him. Like how does that work? Okay. Yeah. Okay. You just said the word. So and they say that and I don't know if you can put this on your show. It's a two F's. You either fuck or fight. They'll rape you too. Wow. But this man didn't get a right. Okay. I wasn't going to ask, but as long as you're telling me, was that a fear that would be my biggest fear as like, you know, a lot of that stuff happens in there. And yeah, we, you know, in your year with two, there's two people in a cell and six by nine. Yeah, I had a shank too. I had to protect myself in case someone down.

47:10You know, you got a hide stuff and I mean, it's part of the deal. I became an inmate. I mean, four years long time, Rachel. Yeah. Yeah. So and what was your relationship with like with the guards? Good. Good for the most part. There was one that had an issue with and it was interesting and they did a shake down one day. And I had, um, they came in and took my bottle of vitamins and they were mixed with multi with vitamin B12 that I had gotten off. Commentary. So they made it out. They wrote me a ticket and, um, made it out to like, it was drugs. So I call home the next day to talk to my children and they're crying. And I said, what's going on? You're using again, dad, it's in the paper. They put it out in the paper that the sheriff was found with drugs in his cell. Right. Got it. And it was vitamins. And I'm curious. Did you have any special relationship with the warden or anything because of your history

48:14and your past? I did. I had one with the deputy warden. His name's Corey Foster. Great man. Um, he, and you know, he'd come around and walk the blocks and him and I would talk and converse. We knew a lot of the same people too because of being the sheriff and that. And he was always good to me and, uh, respected me. Still call me sheriff and, uh, yeah, yeah. And even though I mean, I still talk to him all the time today. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and we'll talk, we'll talk about it. He's got to quote my book. Okay. He's that special. And, uh, no, so he could do anything to protect you from whatever you had to go through. But the respect was really good. Got it. And then so, uh, you know, I, I, I, I became an inmate for four years. I, I, so I, I even got tattoos laws in prison. Got it. What were your tattoos of? It's so my first father's day to pay homage to my kids. I got their names on me on the back of my arms.

49:15Nice. I paid my, my bunkie 10 packs of ramen noodles for that. How do you name it? What do you name it? That's too rough. What's that? What are you tattoo with? Like how do you, how do you do that? Guitar string and, um, we got plastic fans in there. So they sharpened the guitar string, turned into like a needle, take two batteries, spark it to sterilize it. And they had a little contraption from an old radio. Would they would hide it? Hide the, it would hide it in the wall. And he would shoot tattoos. Oh my god. It's amazing. I mean, it is kind of clever with these people can come up with the prison. There's some of the smartest people I've ever met in their Rachel. Yeah. I learned a lot. Ha. That must have been like incredibly interesting to see all the things that they would come up with. So I want to go back to your relationship with your wife and then your mistress for a second. So Kyle, how dumb are you to have conversations that you know are recorded with a woman who is not your wife? I didn't think that was part of the case. I was wrong. Absolutely wrong. My ex-wife, she's a wonderful woman, a wonderful mother.

50:16Yes, I was wrong. So when you were found out, where was your relationship? Did you want to try and repair with your wife? Did you want to repair? Did you want to make your mistress your new wife? Like how did what was going on your head there? I ended up getting into divorce. I went through bankruptcy. I gave, I took nothing into the divorce. I, because I wanted my kids and I'm going to be taken care of. Okay. Which I should have. And did she let your kids come visit you? I didn't see them for four years. Why? Because they didn't want to see me in that, in that position and I respected it. Okay. But I still talked to them on the phone. And I helped out as much as I could finding itchly because I had some money too. Okay, got it. And I always wanted to give that to them. Got it. Okay, that's not true. The mistress, no more. I cut ties. That was cut. We cut ties. You cut ties right when that happened? Or did she, I mean, listen, if I was going to jail, I would feel like my husband was leaving me. I'd be like, I need someone to be thinking about me on the outside. I don't know if I would have been able to cut off that other relationship too. So that ended.

51:17It did it eventually. Yeah. Okay. Yep. All right. So what do you think was the biggest thing that got you through? I mean, obviously it was knowing that you were going to be a better father to your kids. What was your hope? What did you think you were going to be able to do with your life? Because getting out, where I want to talk about this, getting out of prison from what I've spoken to, from a lot of guys who have been incarcerated. That moment when the doors hit behind you and you're a free man, there is a lot of bitter sweet to that because it is so hard to start over when you have nothing and now you are convicted, felon and no one believes in you or wants to give you a chance. I worked on Kyle over my every day, Rachel. I invested myself into people in there. I sat around and talked to a lot of people that struggle with drug abuse, mental health. A lot of people started gravitating towards me because I was pretty outspoken about my recovery and what I was going to do.

52:18And then culture was a big thing with me. My workout partner was a blood who was a Muslim. And so we would work out and I would get so irritated because he was on that prayer rug all the time and I wanted to go work out. We would argue. And one day he throws a carana and he says, if you want to complain, you better start finding out about it. So I put my nose in the caran and read the caran and I even went so far, I did Ramadan with him too and fasted. And I had a respect and a lot of people were surprised. I did that. And I wasn't Muslim and I'm still not today. But I wanted to understand that and I wanted to understand about Allah and everything. And I felt when I did this, it actually cleansed me because I lost weight and my mind was very clear. So I did stuff like that. I even went as far as Black History Month.

53:19I wrote an essay and it was kind of funny. A woman comes, a black woman comes to my door to and she's got a least famous recipe chicken dinner and she knocks on the door and says, hey, I'm looking for Kyle Lovermeyer. He's the winner of the Black History Month. And I said, well, that's me. And she goes, no, stop messing around. When you stop, I said, it's me, me. I mean, she said, get your ID. And I show her and she's like, oh, I'm sorry. And I said, what, she goes, I thought you're going to be Black. Because how would you know so much? I wrote about Martin Luther King, Jr., when he was incarcerated in Alabama. And I kind of tied it into what was happening with me. Right. But it was funny, you know, hey, don't judge a book by its color, you know? Yeah, yeah. So I did a lot of. Was this a contest though? Like, were they trying to give you guys something to do and work on? And you decided to enter? Yeah. So I always did. I went back to college while I was there. Oh, wow. I got a chemical dependency, console license when I went there. I studied a lot of business law.

54:20I did IOP, which is an intensive outpatient programming, where which was recovery, recovery program. And they would drug test you every week. And if you didn't, if you failed, you would be in a yellow, they could call it a banana suit. I was the only one that never failed. I was in the room. So drugs are really rampant in in prisons. They're every day cell phones, you name it, cigarettes one for five bucks a piece, you name it, you could get it. If you had the money, it was there. So corrections officers just allow this to happen. Well, they're part of the problem, you know, got it. Okay. They bring it into it because they're underpaid, so they want to make money. So I say, um, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself. Yeah, that's actually what I wanted to ask you. Like you, you talked a lot about how you took the time to work on you every day. So what do you think prison taught you about who you actually are? Were versus what the headlines had been saying, which your kids might think and your ex-wife and your mistress and all the people that you let down. What did prison actually teach you?

55:21Two things, gratitude. I had everything taken from me, everything. And I didn't know what gratitude was. I wanted to prison when I was 42 years old. And I'm like, come on, I'm an educated man. I didn't understand what gratitude was. And so I write a gratitude list every day. I remind myself, that's how I begin my day. Do you still do that? Uh, no, but gratitude is a big thing. I'm grateful every morning. I wake up every morning. Now I read Jesus calling every morning. Oh, you do. I'm nice. Yes. Yes. And um, next thing, I found peace in prison. I mean, there's so much chaos in there, but I found peace within. And it's interesting for one of the toughest places that you're supposed to be at. I found peace. Yeah. And uh, the, the chaos that would clutter my mind on the outside was no longer there. Yeah. So it was like I cleaned out my closet and now I could go out fresh again, you know. Right.

56:22So you were sentenced to four years. How long did you end up serving? I did four. You did four. How come these days people are sentenced to something and they only do half? How does that work? I don't know because I was a sheriff. They wanted me to do it all. Okay. So you knew you were in there and you knew you were not getting out of there. Yeah, but you always did. And this is a constant thing within me. It's you're always like, you always want to say that maybe there's, uh, you know, some way you can get out or extra time off. I did. I saw some people come and go quickly. Me. I, I had to do my time. Hey, what's up guys? It's Hayley Bailey. Okay. I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst. I get to add free, I get back room play and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube premium. Try it now for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Try eligibility varies. Terms apply.

57:22Can't fill anytime. That's a mouthful. So do the, how does it work? I'm always curious about this too. Do they say like, okay, August 14th is the day four years or now you're getting out and you know that's the day and that is the day you get out. I mean, is it that simple? It is, but so I got out and so I started the, I got out and then I went to a transitional housing which was like a halfway house which is just as bad. And then I was released. My release date was April 6th, 2020. Okay. So the halfway house is like a prison or you're like living in? Yeah, I mean, it's the same. I would, I would have rather just stayed in the prison. I'm really. Yeah. It's just, it's a circus. So it's not like that moment that you see in the movies where you finally get out. You're off the property and then you're like, oh my god, I'm free. This is amazing. I could use the phone. I can't see my kids. You do feel a little bit of freedom, but once you get out, totally, you feel it. But then I was on parole and I had an ankle monitor too. Got it. Okay. So now what are you doing at this point? You're out. You have your ankle monitor, whatever.

58:23What are you going to do for work? What are you going to do about your family? Like what's the plan? Well, I ended up homeless and like really homeless, like living on the street, but in my car. So and then I get to call my parole officer. She's like, you got to find somebody, Kyle. And so I called this woman. I had said on a lot of boards. I was bored of trustee for different places. Actually, one of the colleges, okay. And I had always stopped up to see this woman. She was, she was a great woman. She'd even send me cards in the mail. You know, encouraged me when I was incarcerated. And she was a librarian. And she said, if you ever need anything, let me know. So I took the chance and she said, you can, I got a spare room with an air mattress. You can flop there. So I took my six bags and garbage. Like in her home or like at the library. No, no, no, not a library. So I went there and I had my six bags of donated clothes.

59:24I got from the halfway house. And that's where I started over. Wow. And then oh, seven months. So isn't that interesting? It really shows you that even just having one person believe in you can be that one thing that gets you off your feet. Because without her, who knows if you would have had to make some bad decisions just to survive? Her name is Deb. I put a special shout out in my book tour, too. I still talk to her. She's a wonderful woman. I call her my second mom. And then I had to find a job. So are there programs though that this halfway house or prisons put you in a system where you can you know, go find a job easier or like how do they support you when you get out? Since it's happened to me, there are more and better. It's getting better here. Okay. So I had, I was ended up, I had to be in my county back in my same county where I was share of home found. And so I've been friends with a guy named Larry Bowman who own least famous recipe chicken.

1:00:30Since I want a chicken dinner from Lee's in prison. So he always was a big second chance guy. And so I go to see him one day and I go back in the kitchen and he's like, oh, Kyle, welcome home, you know, and he goes, what's going on? I said, they're I need a favor. I said, he was what? I need a job man. Nobody can hire me. He's like, okay, he goes, I believe you're straight Kyle. I can tell and you know, I know I've known you for a long time. He said, see that fryer over there? I said, yeah, he goes, you think you run that thing? I said, yeah, he's like, I'll hire you in 9.50 an hour. I said, I'm in. I was like, I hit hit the jackpot, you know what I mean? I got a job. Yeah. So I started frying chicken there. And then, uh, And how humbling was that? Oh, so humbling that people in Fremont, where I'm from, heard about it,

1:01:32they came in and took pictures of me and turned them into memes on social media and tried to break me. Wow. Wow. I'm glad you did it. You are. So why? Because that gave you the motivation to be like, fuck you, I'm going to do this and I'm going to get my way out of here. Rachel, you speak my language. You know what? I love when people tell me I can't do nothing. Like they say, you can't. They're wrong. They, they just don't know who, who they're dealing with it. Right. I mean, I've been through four years of prison. Come on. That's going to break me. Right. So what I did is I made sure I went to about five NAA means a week. I started to talk somebody for therapy and I stayed clean. I started to build relationships back with my kids. Right. That's what I did. I went full go. And then eventually I got an apartment, put enough money to do together. You know what? How hard was that by the way? As a convicted felon to get an apartment with a job on minimum wage?

1:02:37I mean, was that a struggle? Yeah, yeah, but I got it in the hood. Rice kit, Dorsen. So they were going to let me come. Oh, wow. And so I got it in the hood. It was furnished with Wednesday, garbage day furniture. I'd go around on Wednesdays and find a chair. I'd find a table. Oh, that's awesome. And I was, you know, I had no pride. I had to do it, you know. Right. And I never forget because it was in the hood. We're all the dope boys. A couple of dope boys rolled up on me. And I said, what's up? They're like, well, KO, everybody call me KO on the street. So KO, a couple of things. I'm like, what? Well, welcome to the hood. I said, thank you. And you're one of us now. Wow. So if you need something, holler. Man, those guys bring me food down, stop down. I mean, I mean, I had street credibility.

1:03:39Right, right. I didn't snitch. I went and did my time. I could have snitched on some things. There were some things. And I just did, I bit my lip and did time. Right. So that isn't that interesting because this becomes like your pseudo family. Like the people that you now can count on and you feel a safety coming back into your life. You won, believe Rachel. Some of my friends now are 23 years. I'm meeting with another guy. I mean, it's crazy now. I mean, that's, that's how it is. Wow. So how do you move from that humbling experience and you're working on your, your relationship with your kids? I'm assuming you're trying to do some repairing with your ex only in the way that you guys have to co-parent. And she's got to trust you enough to let your kids back in your life. Is that how does that flourish? And how do you get to the point where you're good? Well, I, you know, I would come to a sporting events. You know, we'd be around.

1:04:40She forgave me. I mean, really? And I said, well, why do you forgive me? She said, well, you don't only talk it, but you walk it. And she goes, Kyle, I'm not gonna lie. You're like a cat. You throw you up in the air. You'll always land in your feet. Yeah. And, you know, I guess I have nine lives. And I used up eight and I got one left, you know? Right, right. Well, it does sound like she's a wonderful woman in the way that she believes in you. She saw you did your time and she wasn't going to hold it against you. Which by the way, a lot of people do, right? They'll just never forgive you because not only did you, you know, wrong the world you were in and the work people and whatever, but you wronged her as a woman with a mistress and your family. And so there's a lot to be angry about. But it seems like you guys are in a great place now. Yeah, I mean, I heard a lot of people and I'm sorry. And, you know, I went back and, you know, tried to clean up that mass. But I won't get off sidetracked. But from there, then I got an offer to go work on midnight shift in a treatment

1:05:44center. That's how I got really rolling. And it was interesting because a lot of those people were struggling with the same things that I did. And I went through so I was able to talk with them and convey my message to them. And I wasn't going to go back on social media. And then one midnight shift I did. And I started talking about my journey and I exploded. Wow. People reaching out to me saying, oh my gosh, I know how you're feeling. Can you help my son? Can you help my daughter? And then that's how it started to go. And then the speaking thing was interesting. A guy named Bruce Joseph who was the president of our local exchange club in Freemod, community organization. And I used to belong to it. He invites me to lunch one day and I said, okay, you know, he's a great guy. He's spiritual and he says, I got an idea for you. I said, what? He says, why don't you come and be our guest speaker at exchange club that you

1:06:45used to belong to. Are you crazy? I said, they hate me. They're going to be mad. He goes, you got to start sharing the stuff. And when she know, they loved it. They embraced it. It was transparent. Yeah. I'm sure. And it does not surprise me because everyone loves a comeback story. But also for people that probably used to know you and trust you and then found, you know, saw what happened to you and then to see you standing in front of them, talking and sharing the story, you know, that being the being that transparent is enthralling, you know, and they want to see the success, right? There is always going to be people that don't. And those people suck so who cares about them anyway. But that comeback story is got to be something that had their jaws on the floor. Yeah. So social media, I get a message then on a Sunday. I was at the gym working out. I love your story. I love to come up and grab lunch with you and your girlfriend. I worked, you know, some non-profits.

1:07:46Her name was Jennifer. She comes and meets me. I don't have a girlfriend. But we eat lunch. That's November 2020. We start getting closer and we fall in love. And she looks at me one night. She says, what are you going to do with yourself? And I told her exactly this. And she looks at me and she says, really? That's what watched me. I said, if you don't believe me, there's a door. Don't we don't need to be together. She goes, all right, two weeks later, she comes back in December of 2020. She goes, what are you doing January 2nd 2021? This is Saturday. I don't know. You want to marry me? Wait, what? Oh, you heard it right, Rachel. Oh my gosh. That's me and Mary are after six. We knew each other six weeks. We got married. Wow. And how's that going? Absolutely wonderful. We've been married over five years. Oh my gosh. So, yeah, so I was going to commute from up North down to Columbus.

1:08:48It was an hour and a half away. Seven days later, I get a call that somebody saw me on social media and offered me a business development job. Come on. I love it. It's your story. So I moved down there, her and I then put together a KO addiction LLC and then the speaking thing starts taking off. And I get better and better jobs each time. My kids, I talk to them every day, the relationship. Now I have two stepchildren with the Jennifer as well. Do they live with you guys? The stepchildren. Oh, Jen has one who's 28 and then Mason's 14. He still does my daughter's 25 and then my son's 22. They're both graduated from college, have careers. And I have three grandchildren too. Oh, amazing. I love that. Yes. Oh my gosh. Actually, it was Riggs's birthday yesterday. We were talking to Riggs on the phone. So he's four. I love that name, Riggs.

1:09:48Yes. So I mean, good. No, you're good. You go to go ahead, Rachel. I was just going to say, what does that feel like going from the power that you had to the rock bottom to now you're still on your rebuild, but you are moving up that notch chart very quickly. You have a woman that loves you. You have a family. You have the family you've created together. And it sounds like you don't have to get furniture that's been left out on the side of the road anymore. And you can create a lovely home. Like where are you at in your heart and your head? You said you don't have to take the pills anymore to go to sleep and have these thoughts in your head. And I, where are you at in terms of your gratitude today? And I don't want to know something I left out. So those shoes I wore for the wedding, I got them from dumpster diving, by the way. And I wore those shoes. Wow. And I still have them. Oh, where's my head? My head. Hey, I don't have bad days anymore. I have bad moments. But I shake them off like a flea.

1:10:50You know, I don't let things trigger me. Because that's me allowing things to trigger myself. You know, I still do a therapy. I work on myself every day. I love life. I love myself. And not in the narcissistic way, because you're supposed to look. If you can't love yourself, you can't nobody else can love you. Right. I actually believe that. And, you know, I just released a book that, you know, from a bestseller. I'm being on amazing podcasts like yours, Rachel, you know. And I get to travel, I mean, I get to travel country speak. And soon I'm not releasing where, but I'm moving up to even a higher position here in the next two weeks. I just, I got a new job that's incredible. That I'm going to be able to travel the country on a national level. Oh, I love that for you. It is. Right. So, so I want to ask this, you've had headlines like corrupt sheriff attached to your name for almost a decade.

1:11:52Now that you've gone through it all, what is the one thing you wish people? If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones. And I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi, background play, so you can lock your phone, and it still plays, baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free. Yes, I said it ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. Understood instead of that headline. This can happen to anyone. Wow, that's powerful. That is so true. And isn't it interesting how people can look at a story like yours and sit back and be like, oh my god, the city, how did he let that happen? blah blah blah or whatever fingers they want to point or it can never happen to me and you're absolutely right in any scenario. Things can get out of control really quickly no matter how powerful you are.

1:12:55And it can all come crashing down. It can. And in one thing I always say, for me to be a better person and change, I got to get uncomfortable to get comfortable. And it's a daily process. You know, it really is. I'm sure you work on yourself every day Rachel. Every day and also another thing I would say from from my perspective of it is even if you've hit rock bottom, even if you've hit rock bottom more than once, there's always a lesson in climbing out and climbing and getting out of it. And that it's not over, you know, like if you feel like if you're listening and you feel like your life is the shittiest it could possibly be and it can't get worse, it probably could. So let's start there. Something worse could always happen. And that is the moment to take the opportunity to climb yourself out and figure out one step at a time, how to make it back. Because imagine sitting in the cell, you knew you had four years ahead of you. And that must have the thought of getting through much less four years.

1:13:56But every minute into the next was probably long and hard and dark. And you did it. And that to me is the lesson too that like that headline can be whatever the headline is, but now the headline is completely different. And it's a testament to the comeback story is a better story than the downfall. And it's always the lesson in it. Sometimes got to go through it to get out of it. Yeah, well, I always say you got to go through it to get to it. That's what I always say, kind of cliche. But you know, some of the greatest things I've met, some of the greatest people, look, I'm sitting here with you Rachel, we're talking. If I wouldn't ever happen, we wouldn't be talking to me. Yeah, you know, and it's interesting. So I even now set on Governor Mike DeWine here in Ohio, his ex-authentic reentry board. I said on that, I just presented to them last week at the board meeting. I'm back in the politics. I was just on the ballot. No way. Yeah, so I'm on the Republican Central Committee here in Delaware County.

1:15:02Wait, so does that mean so even though you're convicted felon, you can still run for government in some way. Yeah, and a lot of people don't do it, but I want to show that you can do it. Wow. Okay, so when is the election or how far are you into that? I was then I was on, I'm in, I'm in now. What? Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. That's amazing. I'm starting to work with Republican Party again. I do, I do critical incident trading for the Franklin County Sheriff's Office for them now. I work with a lot of first responders. I set on a lot of boards and committees now and I'm like to back to where I used to be and I'll give you a little hint about my new job. Life goes around full circle. I'm going to be working with law enforcement again. Amazing. I was just going to ask you if you ever would. It's interesting how God works, you know. Yeah. And now I'm this year I've been speaking in every prison in the state of Ohio

1:16:03to share hope with the inmates. It's interesting. I've been back to some prisons where the guys that did time with me, they were in there and it was like a reunion. They were so glad to see me and I gave them even more hope. They're like, Kyle, you're doing what you said you were doing. I can't wait to get out and do it too, you know? Right. And so I believe the more you give back, the more you get back in the life. Yeah. I mean, and I don't know. I love helping people and I don't regret anything that's happened to me. It's part of the plucking. I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you. Is there anything about your story? We haven't touched on today that you wish people new or you want people to know. Well, my famous quote that I always say and it's mine. Your passion never define you. It should refine you. I love that. People get so hung up on the past. But take that past and turn it into something powerful. Yeah. And a purpose. Go to bed with a dream and wake up with a purpose.

1:17:05I love that. All right. Tell people where they can find prison prodigy and find out what you're doing next and keep in touch with you. Let me tell them how they can get hold of you. So Amazon, you can get it Amazon. That's the unsigned copy, but order order away. And if you want to reach out to me on Facebook, LinkedIn, I'm a Facebook LinkedIn people message me all the time. I was doing it last night. I'll send signed copies I will. And I don't know. Amazing. I think it's, I don't know. It's more personal, I so to speak. Of course. I signed years. I signed years, right? I have a signed copy right here. There it is. I love and I'm going to put it on my shelf right here. And I can't wait to finish it. And yeah, I would suggest that people go directly to you. Do you have an Instagram? I forget. I do, but I don't like I don't do Instagram much. Okay. My wife's always on me Kyle. You're missing the boat, but I'll Facebook whatever people will find me. Well, you're not going to miss the boat, but I will tell you we're going to make some amazing clips of this episode. And we're going to make sure you collaborated on your Instagram.

1:18:06And I'm sure people will DM you, um, you know, for those signed copies. So just make sure that your wife shows you how to be reading your, your DMs. Yes. She's a brain. It is worth it. It is worth the read. It's a great inspirational story. I think everybody should read it. And it's a nice easy read too. It's not like some huge long book. And I feel like you can do it in one, in one sitting. They should be handing these out in prison to people. Yeah. Well, that's that might be next. Got it. So yeah, and one other thing. I would love to sell it as a movie someday. I hope you do. I wish you all the best of luck. It has been my honor to have met you. And I hope that at some point we meet in person. And I can't wait to hear what goes on in your future. And I, I am a fan. I wish you the best of luck. We'll back at you and thank you. It's an honor and a blessing. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't let it end here. Our Patreon community has become one of my favorite parts of misunderstood. It's where I can become more personal,

1:19:07answer your questions, share what's really happening behind the scenes, and continue conversations that simply don't fit into the public podcast. Whether you want bonus episodes, exclusive behind the scenes, access my Palm Beach Life series, monthly giveaways, or even a one-on-one conversation with me. There's a membership tier that's perfect for you. I truly love to welcome you into our insider club. Just visit patreon.com slash misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel or click the link in the show notes. Vehicle safety starts underneath. That's why the pros choose Napa for undercar solutions that stop safety issues before they become costly problem. Go further with complete repairs that restore stopping, steering and stability. Then grow your business through trust and repeat visits. With premium rotors, pads, struts, and wheel hub assemblies, Napa has everything you need to keep under car, under control. That's Napa Noha.