Debra Gauthier

In November 1980 I raised my right hand and took the oath of office to become a police officer in Las Vegas. I swore to serve mankind, safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; to respect the constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice; to keep my private life unsullied as an example to all; to remain courageously calm in the face of danger, scorn, and ridicule; to develop self-restraint; and to be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life, I swore to be exemplary to obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my department. That day I dedicated myself before God to my chosen profession—law enforcement.

There was a tremendous responsibility associated with being a police office and I took the oath that I swore seriously. As the first woman hired under the same standards as the men, I would become the pioneer paving the way for others. In that position I became an immediate threat to the good ol’ boys in my department, and the higher I rose in rank, the greater the opposition. In 1997 when I was about to be promoted to captain after coming out number one on the list of candidates, the then-sheriff told a briefing room full of men that as long as he was in charge, I would never be promoted.

He kept true to those words and put a few of his boys on assignment to take me down. I became the target of a bogus investigation—the result of a subordinate sergeant covertly recording our conversations and then using those tapes to support a claim of retaliation. In all my years of law enforcement, I had never seen such evil done at the hands of those who had taken the same oath of office I had. Maybe I was naïve to think that the thin blue line protected those behind the badge as well as the public. When it was all said and done, the sergeant lied under oath and the sheriff’s hand-picked civil service board upheld my demotion back to sergeant, and I suffered a two-rank demotion.

You’d think the good ol’ boys would have been satisfied that they had pulled off this evil against me, but it did not stop there. Instead I was ultimately fired for praying with a man on a vehicle stop. Yes, that’s what I said—praying—not beating someone into submission or wrongfully terminating a life. Not for committing a crime or violating the oath of office. For praying! I don’t know about you, but I feel it is time to stand up against these injustices and start holding people in public offices accountable. As hard as it was for me to get back up after being knocked down, I knew I had to write my story and expose the corruption and political games that go on in our police agencies. Since the taxpayers are the ones who pay for this nonsense, I thought you should hear from someone who has been there. My name is Debra Gauthier, a 21-year veteran officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. For the whole story, check out my book, Bright Lights, Dark Places.

I recently read a staggering statistic that around 21 million Americans (7 percent of the nation’s population) struggle with depression and 39,000 commit suicide each year. This is the cold, hard reality of the world that we live in. I know personally the results of being hopeless and almost became one of those statistics on August 5, 1997. On that day my world and everything that was dear to me came to an end and I found myself in a dark, dangerous place. I was in the world without God and I had no idea how to get myself out of the situation I was in. Perhaps you have been there and understand what I am talking about.

So what is hope? Webster’s Dictionary says it is a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. Trust and reliance are also important aspects of hope. So what do you do when you have suffered an injustice and the people you thought you could trust betray you? You lose hope and trust in people, which is what happened in my case. As the pioneer female police officer on the department where I served I faced a lot of opposition, paving the way for other women who would be joining the police force. When I was about to be promoted to captain, the highest civil service rank, the sheriff told a briefing room full of male officers that as long as he was the sheriff, I would never be a captain. Shortly afterwards he put a few of his boys on me and I became the subject of a bogus investigation that ultimately resulted in my termination.

My career was everything to me and I had dedicated twenty-one years of my life protecting and serving my community, so when I was facing the loss of everything I had worked so hard for I lost all hope. I had no idea I was on a collision course to meet the God of all hope. I like to say, “When desperation meets Divinity, a miracle happens” and that is precisely what happened that rainy day in August. God redeemed that situation and brought hope in my deep, dark valley of trouble. At that glorious pivotal moment when I joined my life to Jesus’s, everything turned from death to life, sin to salvation, and hopelessness to eternal joy.

What I know about hope is it does not disappoint. The reason hope never disappoints is because the love of God is poured out in our hearts when we get to that desperate place in life and cry out to a very real, very personal God who loves us more than we can even imagine. Jesus died so we could live and he invites everyone to come, which means we have to die to ourselves and follow his ways. That is the part that costs us, but I will tell you from experience it is well worth it!

(From Chapter 1, Rescued, in the book, Bright Lights, Dark Places)

Coming into God’s Kingdom is not without a spiritual battle. As a police officer I was accustomed to dark places and fully trained to confront evil; what I wasn’t prepared for was the reality of the darkness in the spiritual realm. That is, until something strange happened. I had just gone to bed one night and was drifting off to sleep when I felt a bone-chilling cold come into my bedroom. It was nothing like I have ever experienced and suddenly I was paralyzed with fear. I tried to get up, but some force was holding me down. As I lay on my back unable to move, I was staring at the ceiling fighting back the panic I felt. In the darkness I saw the shadow of a bony hand reaching down toward my head. I watched in utter terror as this hand physically grabbed my hair. It pulled so hard that my head came up off the pillow. I tried to scream but nothing came out…

You may be asking yourself, Do these things really happen? I can tell you from my own experience and from speaking with other people that the spiritual realm we do not see with our natural eyes is more real than the realm we live in. I was not made aware of this until I was translated out of the kingdom of darkness into God’s Kingdom of Light. It happened when the blinders that the god of this world puts on us fell off my eyes and I could see the glory of God. When I believed in my heart that Jesus was God’s Son and he had come to earth to die for my sin, and confessed with my mouth that he was Lord, that supernatural event occurred and I became a newborn spirit being. What was lost in the garden through one man’s rebellion was regained through Jesus’s obedience and ultimate death on the cross. I was now a new creation in right standing with the Creator.

As I entered into this new Kingdom I realized I had an enemy who was out to kill, steal, and destroy my life. The true enemy is Satan, a fallen angel who rebelled against God when he exalted himself and wanted to be worshipped. When God kicked him out of Heaven, a third of the angels followed this renegade angel. These fallen angels, also known as demons, live in the earth realm and torment people with fear and all kinds of evil that we see in our world today, including mental and emotional torture. Since the battle going on for the souls of mankind takes place in the spirit, we have to learn to fight with new weapons—Divine weapons that God provides.

God’s Word is a spiritual weapon that we use in prayer to smash warped philosophies and tear down the strongholds erected against the truth of God. The devil doesn’t play fair and he uses the power of deception to masquerade himself as an angel of light. He will present lies that seem good are close to the truth–but not quite–to deceive us. If we don’t know Jesus, then we are essentially worshiping the creature by default. He plays on our ignorance of God’s Word and who we were created to be. So why do I share this with you? Because we are living in a time when it is important to have our spiritual eyes opened and an awareness and understanding of the battle that we are in. Depending on what kingdom you’re in will determine the outcome. It’s time to choose life and the blessing!

(From the chapter, “Out of Darkness” in the book, Bright Lights, Dark Places)