New Area Command, Same Drama
After all of that happens, the Lieutenant gets transferred to a different area command, but the bombardment didn’t stop there. Boom! Suddenly, an incident happens with a Black Sergeant disciplining a subordinate white officer while at the shooting range. Apparently, those particular white boys on the department did not like being reprimanded by darker shades, so the officer cried about the situation to some fellow white officers and somehow they had the Black Sergeant removed from the range. They tried to get Lieutenant Goode to sign a fraudulent document as a witness against that sergeant saying that she saw him being a trouble maker and she respectfully declined. Those band of idiots came together to try to charge her with subversive acts, which is the act of seeking or intending to subvert an established system or institution. Basically, she was charged because she didn’t fearfully go along with the nonsense. Almost as if to see after all she had already been through, she would finally go alone with the system. You see how they do? To be clear, by they, I mean the type of people who are hellbent on making it difficult for people to just live their natural lives. Lets be clear, especially Diaspora African aka Black People in America. Lieutenant Goode was suspended without pay because of this malevolence, but you can never keep a good Woman down. Carl Fruge aka Deputy Chief Sweaty Pits, one of the members of the police lynch mob, botched the whole investigation because he missed the deadline to file the complaint due to the fact that he was illiterate. Nothings worse then someone who can't read and write but starts a lot of shit. As you can see, divine intervention and karma has always been right around the corner for those that intentionally tried to do professional harm to Juanita. Retired Chief Sweaty Pits was drunk and swerving on his moped and crashed it into a North Las Vegas Police Cruiser. He was just fine, because he angrily got back up and resisted arrest when North Las Vegas Police tried to handcuff him and they had to use force. Punks jump up to get beat down.
There’s Always A Calm
By 2005 Lieutenant Goode was investigation free and at peace. However, she still felt like they were after her and she wanted to be prepared for life after the department. Juanita started tapping into her additional skill sets by diversifying her hustles and maximizing her streams of income. Everything she started doing actually correlated with some of the things she loved. Juanita obtained her real estate license and started working at the real estate agency, Coldwell and Banker. She started teaching Criminal Justice classes at the University of Phoenix. I remember sitting in the back of the classroom, seeing my Mother teach, seeing my mother be fearless and just do it. She was always a fitness freak and passionate about health. While in the Air Force, she competed and won fitness competitions. So you know what was next? She got that personal training license as well and began receiving clients. My mom even got her bar tending license too! A bartender and/or cocktail waitress in Las Vegas can make a really good living. My favorite experience during my mothers entrepreneurial journey was when she obtained her small business license and she started her cleaning business; Hot Chicks Cleaning Service. We needed some stand out marketing. I enjoyed helping with the cleaning business, because cleaning is therapy to me and I was getting paid too. My mother got some pretty amazing clients, like Basketball player and sports newscaster, Jalen Rose! His mansion was pretty amazing, I remember it being super artsy and asymmetrical.
The House
The final straw came after I joined the military at 18 in 2007 and was stationed in Camp Casey, Korea, which was my first time being out of the country. I remember I could not get in contact with my mom at all. My phone calls & emails were going unanswered. I had my long time friend, Ray and former friend Leesa to check on her at her house, but they both said no one answered. I don’t typically panic in moments like this, but of course, I was highly concerned. I didn’t feel the need to alert my chain of command and/or put out a Red Cross message, which would be procedure since I had no idea what was going on. As hard as I try, I don't actually remember how long it was when I finally heard back from her or any of that. When I finally received my answer, I was in shock. I remember my ex boyfriend, Jerome, hit me up on MySpace and said, “Is your mom ok? I saw she was on the news.” As hard as I try, I don't actually remember how long it was when I finally heard back from her or if I just started blowing her phone up. I think one of my first experiences with google, was googling my own Mother. The Lieutenant was breaking news.
Lieutenant Drug Addict aka Detective LT Robert Sebby, another irate white man, was in charge of this next orchestration against Lieutenant Goode. Sebby calls her to announce that she’s been named in a fraud case. He was excited, but that was because of the cocaine and crack, not because he had a case. In an attempt to 'Dirty John' attack his girlfriend whom he was obsessively furious with, Juanita’s real estate broker negatively name drops her in a complaint against his girlfriend to the police. I know we always here about New York, Chicago, LA and Las Vegas is right up there with them. This Dirty John Runkle, like all dirty Johns, had a history of fraudulence, stalking, and multiple arrests. Additionally, he also didn’t do right by the financing, so Juanitas dream home loan was all messed up. Like in some lifetime movie, he was a scorned boyfriend trying to get his girlfriend in trouble by any means necessary and decided to bring the LT into it which was easy for him because he was already a fraud who didn't care who got caught in the crossfire. He concocted a story about his girlfriend claiming she was doing fraudulent things in the office. The real estate broker was a criminal and Juanita was caught in the crossfire. However, Metro didn’t care about that, as soon as the name Lieutenant Goode was mentioned, they thought they had finally hit the jackpot.
She was indicted for mortgage fraud and since she was a prominent public figure, that warranted the local media to run wild. There were helicopters circling her house, reporters knocking on her door and calling her phone, and she was breaking news on all the local news outlets. Her phonelines were also being monitored in what was called a “trap and trace” and she was changing phones every week, using 7-Eleven phones and pay phones. My mother wanted to protect my identity which is why she didn’t make contact with me. Juanita had shutdown everything and didn't want me to be in a panic while in South Korea. She had been relieved of duty without pay and she lost about $20,000 of her salary. By the grace of the Most High, Juanita had got a probono Private detective to investigate and the investigator had dug up some exculpatory evidence that could have shut down the whole case, but it wasn’t necessary.
During the trial, the prosecuting district attorney was getting the breaks beaten off of him by her attorney. Although the DA was extremely slow, he was very persistent and I’m sure that was at the encouragement of the white lynch mob at the department. Juanita had a series of judges during this fiasco. One one of them was Judge Abbey Silver, who recused herself because of their friendship & her knowledge of Lieutenant Goodes stellar background. The DA desperately wanted Lieutenant Goode handcuffed and booked, but the second judge, this time a Black Woman, rolled her eyes, suggested that the situation be handled internally, and banged her gavel. This judge, just like the last did not understand why they wanted to see Lieutenant Goode locked up. When white officers have been determined to be criminals they never arrest them, they just fire them. Just like Bill Reed. As I was writing this, I ran through several ideas as to why they would want to see her in an actual jail. What do you think? Finally, the case was assigned to a white male judge who really tried to be patient and I’m sure the prosecutor and LVMPD thought they had a win. However, Lieutenant Goode finally got her secret meeting and the Judge knew it was a piece of shit case. He dismisses the entire case with prejudice, which means they do not like the case and do not want to see it come across their desks again and the prosecutor is not allowed to bring it back, no matter what evidence they think you have. It seems as if Karma came back swinging again and Lieutenant Drug Addict, later died of a drug related overdose. After several failed business attempts, Dirty John Runkle moves to Montana where the obsessed Bill Reed lives and he has a dilapidated bar named Dirty Shame Saloon. After researching the bar, we found out it is complete trash.
After a 2 decades long boxing match with the LVMPD, Lieutenant Juanita Goode decides to retire. She took this route versus continuing the fight within and returning to work because who knows what was next. Obviously, each attempt on her career was getting worse and in my opinion, that's when things get more dangerous. There was no solid policies for protection, the outcomes moving forward could be very unpredictable, and they could’ve take 80% of her pension and she wouldn’t have received her tax free retirement of nearly $80,000 a year. If you've spent time in uniform or in a position for this government and country, they should give you a good check. Period. Additionally, Black Officers were not treated equally where adversity was concerned. LT Goode didn’t have any equal protection under the law and or equal due process. Frankly, white men had more of a due process when receiving disciplinary actions versus Black Officers and Women. What that means, is white officers were given a slap on the wrist and Black Officers were shot in the back.
Life After LVMPD
Continuing in her innovativeness, in 2009, Juanita started a podcast called, American Police Officer Up, to shine light on her situation by making fun of everyone involved right at the turn of the social media century. 11 years later after prospectively dangerous
adversity, Juanita is still living in Las Vegas healthy & happier then ever, having just celebrated her 50th Birthday in Hawaii.
I always felt like, just like every threatening Black Power source, my Mothers history was directly attacked. Not only was she a high ranking Black Woman Officer, but she was very active in her community, leading organizations like DARE & Kids In Action. She was also apart of several Black Police Organizations, like the Black Police Association. A highly educated, Black Woman Police Officer/Sergeant/Lieutenant that is also well liked by everyone but toxic white males, who isn’t an Uncle Tom and active in her community, is a direct threat. I believe the highest of higher ups saw this as a potentially long term threat, as she was in position to possibly become Sheriff one day and strategically tried to destroy her future policing advances and her Black police legacy. I've always been passionate about recovering it. This is HerStory.
With Love...