Doug, Spencer, Hunter, Cindy, Russell, and other family members
I had hoped and tried for years to get a female component added to the Millard County Sheriff patrol force but to no avail. In 2004, no one but a handful of deputies knew that I sought to hire Josie more than a year before she was actually hired. I had heard that she was living and working in the Wasatch Front area of Utah. I got word to her that if she was interested in working for me, I wanted to meet with her. At that time, I had no idea of her strong desire to be a deputy sheriff. Based on what I knew about Josie and her family, I sought her out. I knew she had a great pedigree and the spirit of a mustang.
I found over the years of hiring many people, pedigrees really do count and Josie is a great example of that. Just look at the Greathouse and Carter families, their honesty and work ethic are their trade mark. I do not refer to this lightly. I have known and been a friend of Josie’s Father, Russell, since high school. Besides just a good friend, I have had numerous business dealings with him. As a young man, in my life prior to law enforcement, I worked in the heavy construction industry and became acquainted with and worked with Josie’s Grandfather, Carter. I have known these families for well over forty years of my life. Whatever else I thought I knew about her at that time has later been confirmed.
Her mother told me the other day that she was a very fun but very challenging child to raise. Cindy very lovingly refers to Josie as “my wild child”. Her father, Russell, said he has lost, not only a lovely daughter, but the best ranch hand you could ever hope for.
I also recently found out that while Josie was in High School, she was seen in the principal’s office so often that many thought she was an employee there. During her teenage years, through her actions, she became well acquainted with me and most of my staff and while those contacts were not always the best, her respectful demeanor and the look and sparkle in her eyes and that riveting smile always helped her out.
Now why did I have to wait more than a year to hire her? When Josie filled out her application to the academy, there is a part that requires the applicant to certify they have not used any non-prescribed drugs for a certain amount of time prior to being accepted. After reviewing the application, Josie told me right up front she could not meet this requirement at that time. She told me of the exact date and time of her last association with drug use and promised me she would make things work out, if I would just trust her. She like most, if not all of us here today, had that something in her past that she wished she could change but could only move forward. So forward we moved.
Being a law enforcement officer anywhere is tough duty but being one in a small community that has been your home is even more difficult. The people you have to sometimes lean on are often long time friends and acquaintances and having been a wild child in your prior life doesn’t ease those things at all. I talked in great length to Josie about what she would be dealing with in policing her home town. We also discussed that fact that she would be the first and for the foreseeable future, the only female patrol officer in Millard County. She, in the mean time, gave me no peace and quiet for all of the time we waited to get her in the Academy. She came and saw me almost monthly until the time was up allowing her to meet the P.O.S.T. application requirements.
She really excelled at the Academy and was so proud of what she had accomplished and the fact that she was now a Millard County Sheriff’s Deputy. I know for certain that there were many in this community that seriously questioned my judgment in hiring Josie. However, she was overwhelmingly accepted by her peer deputies and how she has since been accepted as a deputy by her community has been well manifested by their actions, words, and good deeds in support of Josie’s family these past several days. I left the office of Sheriff several months after Josie hit the streets but during that short period of time that she worked for me, what I observed told me I had made a real good selection. About this time, one of her co-workers told me of one of Josie’s rules of contact. When she made a traffic stop and found that the driver was real ugly, she would let them go on their way because she felt they needed a special lift in their life. I don’t suppose I could get a show of hands here today of anyone Josie let off the hook?
Over the past few years I have been told by many people of what a really good officer Josie was. At least a year or more ago, one of my daughters, who is a local prosecutor, told me that Josie was one of her very favorite law enforcement officers to work with, always prepared with her work product and very professional in her actions both in and out of the court room.
Since my retirement, I have run into Josie numerous time and got the best hugs you can get. I am so proud of Josie and so honored to be her friend. Each of us who knew her gained so much from her. I know I surly did.
POLICE OFFICERS’ FUNERAL EULOGY VERSE
Today though in grief we are also in awe
Of someone who died for a cause
That of the right of the man in the street
To be protected by a country’s laws.
With unflinching courage she did what she did
And we are humbled and proud
To have been her colleagues and her friends
On this day it must be allowed
That decency and goodness still survive
That bravery and courage are still alive
That when you put evil up on the scales
Against gallantry and grit it always fails
She led by example and though she is gone
In our memories her heroism will live on.
