An open letter/email to Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell

Since receiving the below email the writer and Chief Isbell have continued to correspond with each other.

Joseph Vaught - After

This letter is published verbatim with the permission of the writer:

"Hello sir. I do not mean to take up alot of your time but I feel I need to talk to you about one of your officers. His name is Sgt Denney. I will never forget that name tag.

"I should start with a little background on me I guess. See I was a homeless man. I had been in and out of small trouble for a long time. I was addicted to crystal meth. I was an iv drug user for many years.

"I had given up that life had anything left for me in it. Officer Denney found me one day. i was wandering around mt pleasant. covered in sweat and the heat had long since had the best of me. Him and one other officer stopped me.

"He checked me out and found out I was clear on warrants and then did something then much different then any other police officer had ever done. He asked me how he could help me. I choked up and just began to cry. I was at my end. I didnt have anywhere to go and was so tired. That was all it took.

Joseph Vaught - Before

"Mr denney went to work. he was calling shelters all over trying to find a place to get me off the street. He finally found a place for me. Then he opens his wallet and hands me bus fair. i didn't know what to say. no one had given me two glances much less care rather I was going to have a place to lay my head that night.

"I have since found a home. i live in cooper texas. I am studying to be a minister and i am 44 days clean. i attend a regular celebrate recovery program here and volunteer most of my week in the community. my name is Joseph vaught.

"Please please tell officer denney that he has my eternal gratitude. I am sure I would have been dead if he would not have stopped that day. I wouldnt have gone much farther before I would have ended my suffering myself.

"Your officers are an asset to the local area. that is something I would have never thought I would catch myself saying but here I am :) well I will let you go with that. god bless and keep safe."

Mr. Vaught asked that his before and after photos be published to help expose the ravages of methamphetamine usage.