It is very difficult to ask for help when you have been self-sufficient and independent for the majority of your adult life, and it only takes one person to tell a lie to tear it all down. I remember in nursing school one of my classmates made a statement, and no truer words have ever been spoken: she said she does not like a liar. You can defend yourself against a thief, and you can defend yourself against a murderer, but a liar—you cannot defend yourself against a liar.
I am a nurse practitioner, I have been a nurse for 27 years and a nurse practitioner for the last 5 years, and I live in Gainesville, Florida.
On May 17, 2025, I was unlawfully arrested. My neighbor made accusations after attacking and injuring me, and to save herself because of her criminal history, she told the police that I went into her home and attacked her after she destroyed my property. The harassment was constant: she continually parked in our handicap spot, ran over my mother's wheelchair ramp, and even threatened to kick my mother right out of her wheelchair right in front of the police. Yet, officers arrested me to pacify her.
I have had two paid lawyers and one public defender, and they do not have my best interest at heart. I have been unable to work for a year, and my finances are completely decimated. Rather than stay in unsafe housing, because my elderly mother lived with me and I took care of her, we made the decision not to renew the lease and leave.
Because of the charges, I am unable to secure housing, so I am currently living in my car with my two children, including one neurodivergent child who goes to school for special needs. All of that stability has been interrupted due to these false accusations and the absolute inability and ineffective assistance of counsel.
She was terrified of where we were living. The stress of the move, the relentless harassment, and the fear took a devastating toll on my mother, and she passed away in December of 2025, approximately 30 days after we left our apartment.
My career has been brought to a complete halt behind something I did not do, and I am not getting the vigorous defense I desperately need.
It is very difficult to ask for help when you have been self-sufficient and independent for the majority of your adult life, and it takes only one person to tell a lie. As a classmate of mine said back in nursing school—and no truer words have ever been spoken—you can defend yourself against a thief, and you can defend yourself against a murderer, but a liar you cannot defend yourself against.
Five dollars, ten dollars, twenty dollars, or anything anyone can spare to help fight this legal injustice, secure a real defense, and get a roof back over my children's head.
The video is my former neighbor threatening my mother, telling my mother not to bring her wheelchair on her side and use her ramp the VAMC installed for my mother.
