WilCo sheriff opens up about abuse to empower victims

Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody is mindful that October is the month for domestic violence awareness. “No body is immune. Just like breast cancer awareness, no body is immune from domestic violence because it doesn’t matter where you are from who you are related to everyone is susceptible to that type of offense,” said Sheriff Chody.

The issue is deeply personal for the sheriff.

On his social media site, Chody recently revealed he is a domestic violence survivor. “Me and my twin brother at the time, we didn’t know what to do, we were scared to death, for lack of a better word."

Chody says as a child he and his brother regularly witnessed their mother physically abused by men. An incident, when he was about 14, involving his mother’s boyfriend changed his life. “I know I wasn’t old enough to physically confront this man, and even though I wanted to, I had the desire to, I was just too scared to,” said sheriff Chody.

The boys were forced to confront their fears. “The beating was so bad this time, we new something was different, we had to intercede where it required me to actually run from the house,” said Chody.

On his Twitter account, Chody describe how the case lead to his decision to go into law enforcement.

In the post he noted the officer who responded to his 911 call provided relief, and  now he wants others to experience that same feeling.  “That sense of security I felt when that officer arrested that abuser from my family I’ve never felt that sense of security ever in my life, and I wanted to provide that to just one person, ever if I don’t know who it is, the cop that did it for me has no idea, has no idea that he did that,” said Chody.

Sheriff Chody says he has tried to find the officer who came to their rescue, in order to thank him and to tell him how his life was changed. So far the sheriff has been unable to locate the officer.

The decision to make this revelation about his past on social media comes as no surprise. Sheriff Chody has a reputation about using his smart phone to get a message out.

Williamson county has a crisis hotline operated with hope alliance. The toll free number is 1-800-460-safe. The number for the national domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-7233.