Dear Dad

In 2019, my father still wanted me to be a lawyer, but in April 2019 he lost the title of Dad, not that he ever deserved it. He told his daughter who had been raped 5 months before, been a victim of domestic violence by a Pooler PD officer "Don't ever call me again." In October of 2019 when I called him The Pooler PD had taken my animals Jacob and Ella, left me in a car for 2.5 months, taken the evidence I was raped, the litigation in my wrongful termination, falsely arrested me, left me in the street, I had gone through a gallbladder surgery alone, been molested by a black man, had the Savannah Police Department, Nicole Lantano threaten me with arrest for being molested, been in the street for 5 months and a Savannah Pd officer, a supervisor in City Market would not help me call him. I borrowed someone's cell phone in a gas station because Chatham County Sheriff's deputies had taken mine when I went I went to the Juvenile Court where I had worked for help, who left me in the street. I called my father, Edward Voss Rogers in AZ, and told him what was going on. His response "Devani, I only get $1600 dollars a month disability I am doing nothing to help you" and he left his raped, molested, daughter in the streets of Savannah. I called him in November 2019, and he wouldn't send an email to my friend Tony Waller to help me. I would try and call, send emails until January 2021 when I called and he disconnected his phone number. He hasn't spoken to me or even called or returned an email to see if I was even alive. He has done nothing but leave his daughter to suffer every humiliation possible. All of the men I trusted who are fathers, from my ex boyfriends, a lawyer and a police officer, have ignored me, every man I looked up to as a dad, like Judge Thomas Cole, Judge John Beam, Judge Leroy Burke III have been silent. Everyone I ever respected like Joseph Lumpkin, and everyone I needed.

This man, Marty Chambers in Febuary 2020, who works at a Salvation Army in Brunswick, had this t-shirt that said "I am the dad that stepped up when he didn't. " We could not be more different, he is black and I am white, he was a criminal and I was a victim of them. When I didn't even have money to re[place my driver's license that had been taken by Chatham County Sheriff Deputies in June 2019, he with his own money, ordered my driver's license. $5...$5 that no one would spend on me from June 2019 until then. Whenever he was at work, I knew I could get a cigarette from him. He always made me feel safe. When I returned to Chatham County, the harassment didn't stop. That driver's license got me a job, it didn't pay enough to have my own motel room or my own anything but it got me out of the Salvation Army in Savannah that was quick to throw me in the street when I couldn't come up with the money they wanted, or feel safe at night sleeping in because the women would not let me sleep, they would steal my underwear, and clothes, the staff would treat me so badly refusing to even let me have a bus pass so I could go to a rape crisis center, wouldn't let me make a phone call to anyone for help, wouldn't even get me glasses like they would drunk nurses.

My friends who are fathers, of little girls let their adult friend be molested twice, report a rape on her own, go through every form of harassment and threat by Chatham County law enforcement, which hasn't ended because they don't care that I victimized by law enforcement - trust me I have tried to hold them accountable.

When I think of dad, I think of my deceased step-father, Albert who on his deathbed, told me I would always be protected. Whose simple gold wedding band I carried in my wallet every day since he died when I was 18, I had it taken by Chatham County Sheriff's Deputies in June 2019. Over 20, years that ring changed wallets and purses, it was the ring I wanted to give to the man I married .. with only only one alteration..Engraving "Always" because Albert never said I love you. Maybe once but it didn't matter, because "Always" covered it. He would give me money to get my nails done when my paycheck was short, he remained my father when my mother divorced him so she didn't have to pay his medical bills. He picked my up from High School in his light blue Toyota MR2, that he got as an elctrical Engineer at Texas Instaments. He loved Billy Joel and Pink Floyd, he was the father I never had growing up because my father didn't care when I was a kid , and clearly not as an adult. When I moved to Ga, I was looking for a job, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back into juvenile probation so I had run into someone somewhere and was talking to them about what they did. He worked for a security company in Atlanta that did high security asset protection among other things. He told me they were looking for a consultant and gave me his business card. I had my retirement I was living on, but was bored to tears with being at home. So after a few weeks I called and was given an interview. I drove to Atlanta and met the man who remains the best father who ever adopted me.

This man was the last person I ever expected to "adopt me." A black Ex-Navy Seal married to a little white Jewish woman. He was a former NYPD police officer, who had been fired because he took the law into his own hands when the law didn't save a woman. He gladly gave up his badge, because to him protecting a woman and her children is what he had sworn to do and just because the law enforcement officer she was married to was being protected by the department at the cost to her life, he did something that in his mind "an good man would do." He beat the hell out of his fellow officer, and took his wife and kids home. They lived with him for several years, not because she had to but because he felt like he had to pick up the pieces of what the department didn't do. He became a Navy Seal, who was awarded a Purple Heart, fathered a son and married his then wife. His son, will I worked for him, raped a woman, his girlfriend. Law enforcement was slow on investigating the case, so he kicked his son out of his home. His son tried to come back in and he shot him and called the cops. He then gave the woman his son raped enough money to get through the counseling, not have to work and when she was ready he hired her. He has this thing, this code he lives by, he tries to fix what people broke. I can't explain it, it just is. I always admired him so much for this. He asked me about my family, he wasn't a fan of my parents, but when he found out grandpa was Navy, he hired me. The day I quit to take a probation job, he gave me a teddy bear he kept in his office. No teddy Bear shaming I had it until Lanna Henze decided I deserved to have everything I owned given away by her and Chatham County PD not care, and refuse to answer an email.

This man used to tell me the most amazing things about me. I was brilliant, beautiful and the daughter he always wanted. He sent me an email every year on my birthday, and Christmas when my own father never did, and with one child can't remember how old I am or when my birthday is. This man is my hero. I haven't been able to see him yet, he was where I was going in May 2019 when my car got a dead battery and the Pooler Pd left me to die in the Georgia Heat for two and a half months, then took my car illegally and won't do anything to hold their officers responsible for destroying my credit, my career, my health and my life for the last two years. Through the worst of two years of my life I have "adopted" men as Dad, not they knew but because I had to believe there were men in the world who didn't hurt their daughter and leave them to figure it out. They were men like Joseph Lumpkin, Judge Thomas Cole who have ignored me like my own father has. So it became people like Chad a Gainesville Firefighter, Bill and ex Army truck driver, Christopher Armstrong who leads the most amazing firefighters in Georgia, men who I look at as who my father should have been. They owe me nothing , they are not the people who hurt me but even the next door neighbor I look at like a Dad. Men who may not know me, but I know are amazing men my father will never be nor will the important people that I respected like one like Alan Lowe, who when I went to him for help in Feb 2020 wouldn't even talk to me, and recently threatened to have me arrested for merely trying to get documents in my wrongful termination. A year ago I would have told you, this was the man who wanted me to go to law school, offered to write me a recommendation to UGA, who I wanted to be like. Now I am petrified of him. Not any different than my biological father. To the Dads who have taken the place of the Dads I loved either as dad or lovers, to the men who have done what they they could because my father and anyone I looked up to as Dad threw me away, Thank you. You are superheroes who have saved my heart, and one who has literally saved my life. You are always why I still believe that maybe someday I can have a baby, and are who I want to name a baby after. I may not be able to name a baby Thomas because of Judge Thomas Cole, but I can after an EMT in Augusta that works for Gold Cross, who gave me more medical care than the doctor, who has a beautiful wife and baby I worry about. I can after Thomas Luke Bryan who adopted his sister's kids. Thank You to the Dads, of the world for reminding me that not all dads are like my ex boyfriend who beat me, my exes who haven't done anything to help me, or the the police officers who literally almost killed me. To Sheriff Roundtree, every week I watch you on Car One to Dispatch and I think how lucky they are to have you as Sheriff, how much I know you care about them, how much they respect you, and you remind me of my adopted dad whose company I am still trying to protect. To the Council of Dads and bros...thank you.

Always, Your little Girl.