Mental-health advocate recounts harassment, suicide attempts and asks board for case review

A resident who said she is a mental-health advocate addressed the board about ongoing harassment, threats and suicidal ideation, saying she had been the target of hostile reactions to her advocacy and that friends had died while others suffered. She described multiple suicide attempts and asked the board to consider dropping a case against her husband, saying imprisonment would cost him his job.

"I shouldn't be here. I should be dead," the speaker said as she recounted trauma, threats and difficulties obtaining timely responses from law enforcement. She named two county drug counselors, Raven Shepherd and Richard DeWalt, and said she would leave written materials for the board and distribute them countywide.

The speaker also said she reported fraud to the sheriff and described a sense of being ignored by local law enforcement; the board acknowledged the comments but no staff action is recorded in the transcript excerpt. The speaker closed by saying she would return to work and asked the board to read the materials she left.