When you grow up with a father who is a respected Washington County Detective in Oregon, you become a part of a brotherhood and a family. When that trust is betrayed by one of the brotherhood, the results are devastating.

My husband lost his father, Retired Washing County Sheriff Detective John Calbreath to cancer in January of 2014. Grieving and remembering should have been the natural process for us, but instead of spending our time with memories, we have spent endless nights of doing research, chasing paper trails, scanning documents and above all, missing time with our kids. Why? Because of one man, a fellow retired officer, someone we trusted, someone who deceived us and betrayed that trust.

This man defrauded the estate of my Father-in-Law starting with the cremation papers stating that he had no heirs. My Father-in-Law’s ashes were taken and spread without our knowledge and with total disregard for his only son, my husband. It took 2 years of repeated requests as to where his Dad’s ashes were before he was finally informed, by email 2 months after the fact as to the location. The family homestead was fraudulently transferred, court documents forged, money embezzled, repeated lies and most recently threatening texts from this man who is responsible for it all.

Trying to get justice is hard on a family with a fixed income, 2 special needs kiddos, a disabled wife and being 2,000 miles away from Portland, Oregon where the legal battle is taking place. After three years of hard work and struggle, we were finally able to have our day in court. Now we wait for the judge’s ruling so that hopefully we may go forward to recover damages and see criminal charges brought down against this man.

My Father-in-Law was a great man and highly regarded in his field. He made sure the victims in his cases got the justice that they deserved. Right now, we need help to do the same for him. Currently we are sitting on almost $9,000 in legal debt with $2,300 due by the 10th of April to maintain our Attorney who has brought us farther than anybody else has. 

I lost my mother 2 years ago and have sold everything she left me to keep pushing forward to try and recover what this man did to his fellow officer and his family. Any little bit helps and is greatly appreciated.