When Heroes Fall: A Sheriff’s Rise, Ruin, and Redemption | Kyle Overmyer

In this episode we talk with Kyle Overmyer, a nationally recognized voice in addiction recovery and mental health advocacy.

Once one of the youngest sheriff elects in Ohio, Kyle’s life took a dramatic turn when he faced his own battle with opioid addiction. His journey through law enforcement, legal hardship, and personal transformation has shaped a mission rooted in honesty, resilience, and hope.

Today, Kyle is the co-founder of KO Addiction, LLC and serves as Director of Business Development at Complete Healthcare. He continues to speak nationwide about recovery, stigma, and second chances.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to Never Alone Live. Tonight is first time doing this at night. Normally, our time is uh at one o'clock Eastern Standard Time. Tonight, here we are doing it at six o'clock Eastern Standard Time. And uh, as usual, we have the lovely Krista, aka Sober Barbie. You know me, I'm Johnny, and uh I'm very we're very lucky to have uh Kyle Overmeyer here with us tonight. Um Kyle, we're just gonna jump in, dude. You know, you know, you uh you are you've been interviewed all over the place, and you are uh you are was that is it famous or infamous? One or the other.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Uh you better go infamous and by by the um if you Google, um I'm number 72 out of 88 uh inmates in the state of Ohio. Seven the most uh infamous out of 70, I'm number 72 out of the most infamous inmates in the state of Ohio. That's what they list me as.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

You know, we uh we we are we're talking tonight, you know. We talk the I think that the the label of this meeting was when heroes, when heroes fall. Um and but you you are a hero that has fallen over. You're gonna tell your story, but your hero has fallen, but but rise back up again. And I can't wait for people to hear hear your story, Kyle. So I'm just gonna turn it over to you. Where where did you grow up? Where are you from? All that stuff, fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I am actually I'm I'm from Fremont, Ohio. That's northwest Ohio, near Lake Erie. Um, you know, you know, just a rural area, a little bit of inner city, you know. Um, yeah, I I lived, I had the all-American life. Um, two parents are still married over 50 plus years. My father was uh uh he's a retired captain after 38 years at the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office. My mother worked in a um uh in the office at a construction business. They put me through uh private Catholic school all my life. I played childhood sports, I played football, I was a wrestler, and uh I was an inner city boxer as well. Um, so yeah, I had a great life, Northwest Ohio, and uh yeah, that's how it all began, Johnny.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Are you you a big Buckeye fan?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Oh O H I O. That's where I was just a few minutes ago. I was on the um on the campus at the Ohio, uh Ohio State Law School speaking. So that's where I just came from a few minutes ago.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Oh cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

So you're you're a big wrestler, you're a big boxer. Um, you know, uh, did you go did you go to college and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I did, I did. So I uh I started at the University of Toledo. Uh I majored in art. I studied at the Toledo Museum of Art. I paint and draw as well. Um, so after two years, didn't know what I wanted to do. So I dropped out of college, came back to uh Fremont, Ohio, um stayed with my parents, worked a couple factory jobs, uh started competing in uh powerlifting, bodybuilding. I got in that scene for a while, worked at worked at a gym, and then I kept gravitating back towards uh what my father did all his life, uh law enforcement. I went back to him, I said, Dad, I think I want to go to the police academy and uh uh follow in your footsteps. You know, he said, forget about it, you know, and uh I didn't listen to him. So I jumped on board and put my money together, and I went to the police academy and got out in 1995 and started my career in law enforcement in 1996 at Sandusky County Sheriff's Office, actually in corrections uh guys. That's what I first did.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Okay, so in 1996, you jump into law enforcement, and then you are the first, the youngest person to ever become sheriff in Ohio, or is it uh was that nationwide?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

So no, so I was at that time uh in so I went through the ranks 1996. I was in corrections, road patrol, detective bureau, um, homicide. I worked homicide cases, narcotics, and then I did uh undercover for three years with DEA as well. Uh I bought um actually from the the cartel buying uh large quantities of cocaine. That's what I did for three years. And then um from then um my sheriff, who was actually grooming me to be the next sheriff, it came uh you know at an early age. He passed away, and then I was appointed over my um chief deputy who had 60 uh who was 60 years old and 30 years law enforcement. I was 34, making me the youngest sheriff in the state of Ohio at the time, and still currently the youngest in that county history. Younger, youngest sheriff. How did how did that make you feel? You know what? I think at the time I didn't I didn't realize and because it was so overwhelming, guys. But you know, I embraced it and kind of like, you know, I jumped on the field as a rookie and I ran with the football. You know, that's what I did. I had to, I had no other choice. I had some big shoes to fill, and it happened in 2008 when um during that time there was a lot of uh foreclosures. Um, you saw the stock market crash, and so also my budget got cut almost 300,000. So that's kind of interesting because during that time I had to come up with innovative ways, so I didn't um um you know cut jobs and I didn't lay people off. So I um, due to be being the sheriff, I had a jail, and then outside the jail, I had over two acres of um land that was fenced in. So I came up with the idea. I ran a um a jail garden and I went to the community. They took everybody um jumped on board, they they donated, the inmates raised the vegetables, and then I turned around, used those vegetables to um feed the inmates inside uh um the jail, which was one of my biggest pieces of uh my budget was uh the inmates. So I went from there and um I did that the first year, saved thousands of dollars, and then I even then turned around and uh got a chicken coop donated and raised my own chickens and uh used that to utilize uh feed the inmates as well. And it took off quite well, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

So, did you have uh uh you married kids, all that jazz?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

What? I was uh first wife, she was uh high school teacher. Um, I had two children at the time, uh, Michaela, um, and they were both very young, Michaela and I had a son, I have a son, Dylan, as well. So yeah, I was established. I had the all-American life, you know, youngest sheriff, you know. My wife then was a teacher, two kids, and uh everything was going great. And this is political. You had to be you're elected to become sheriff. Yes, I'm I was elected every four years, guys. That's uh how it is in the state of Ohio. I know from state to state everything is different, but in Ohio, it's every four years. So you gotta run. So if you uh you get beat, then guess what? You're out of a job. So it's uh it's it's a tough gig, you know, and you're you know, you're voted in. Um you're the you're usually the top vote getter in this in the county each time, and uh you're the most uh powerful law enforcement uh officer in that county. You know, it's it's a great rank, it's very honorable, and I was proud to be the sheriff and to be that young, yeah. It took on I took on a lot of responsibilities, and uh it all came fast to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

So, yeah, so yeah, how long did you were in the let's let's call it the good years, Kyle. Uh I know your story, and we're gonna be telling our listeners and and everybody else your story. So let's talk, you know, we're let's talk about the good times. How long were the good times good?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

The good times were good until about I was well, because I became sheriff of 34, 36, 37, then diagnosed with arthritis. And that is where a lot of the the changes happen. I was diagnosed with arthritis, I broke both of my ankles um playing childhood sports, and I turned around. So they said, look, Kyle, the only way you're gonna deal with this, uh they prescribe me 105 vikant in a month. Um and then the reason why I'm able to talk about this, I've been through therapy, I've been in recovery now over uh 10 years. So I'm able to talk about these things. So one of the most traumatic things that happened to me, I was involved with a fatal shooting where there was a man that had a shotgun, um, was gonna um kill his family. So myself and the SWAT team entered in, he pointed a shotgun at us, and we had to take his life. Um, and of course, I was there, it was it was my decision, and uh, I was then sued for $20 million. And I eventually went through about a three-week federal trial to clear my name and clear the other guys' names. And um ultimately I was uh found not guilty and didn't have to pay the 20 million. But during that time, I took care of my guys that were part of the you know the incident, but I didn't take care of me. And uh the next uh traumatic event that really hit home with me was I witnessed two brothers and their um and and their friend. Uh they they fell through the ice in the mouth of the river and we went out to save them and they they lost their lives in front of us. And uh that took a toll on me as well. So during that time, of course, I didn't take care of Kyle, I took care of everybody else because I had this big ego and thought, you know what, I'm too strong, I'm the sheriff. Um, you know, I'm the lead law enforcement officer here in the county. I don't need help. But my help then turned into um the 105 Vicodin didn't last a month anymore, they lasted about a week. Um, so then I graduated to stealing from my parents, um, who I love very much, but I stole, cheated, manipulated any way I could. I um stole pills from them because they both have arthritis, and it even got to the point that I knew when my dad was getting his Percocets filled, that I would always volunteer to go pick them up for him so he didn't have to take the trip to the pharmacy. And you know how there's a a bag where the bag where um there's a um they staple it at the top when they close it up. I even went to the um so far I carried a stapler in my vehicle. Oh I always had a stapler. Um, I mean, I did everything I could to figure out how to feed my addiction, you know. Um, so then um I started a doctor shop. I went to multiple doctors and you know, would come up with stories that you know, I lifted my lawn more, did this and that. I went as far as even manipulate my own jail doctor that I had that took care of the inmates, and I graduated from Percocet to Oxycotton. And uh so I had to keep up coming up with some creative ways, and then if you guys are familiar with the uh take back boxes where they throw out the dispose of all the old pills, so we were the hub where we would had a um we had a um a big compartment where we could that everybody could get rid of theirs, and then DEA would come pick them up. So I um went around to each uh police station and I went and picked them up, and then I would come back to my office and I would lock my doors and I would barricade that um those doors so nobody could get in, and I would dump all those pills out on my office floor, the sheriff's office, and I would go through them and pilfer through them and look like I was a kid, you know, at um at Halloween, and through the best candy, and boy, did I do it. So I did those.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

I'm kind of did you ever watch the show DuckTales back in the day? Oh, yeah, Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge McDuck with uh with the gold coins, and he woo that's that I was Scrooge McDuck all over again, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

But yeah, so I mean I went that far, and then it got it kept, you know, it got worse and worse, but I would never try to actually admit to myself that it was addiction because how could I be an addict when I withdrew and arrest people that I said were addicts and put them in jail, you know, and what I did to justify a couple things was no, I couldn't be addicted because I was prescribed these, and next, they were being thrown out, so they were trash. So that's how I justified my addiction and continued my denial along the way because I had so much shame and guilt. But then eventually what happened, it all caught up with me. Um, February 3rd, 2015. Um, I go to the pharmacy and Leslie, who's a pharmacist, and uh everybody knew me. I was a sheriff, I went in there all the time. She said, When I went in to get my Viking that month, um, on that day, she said, Kyle, I want to talk to you for a minute. Hey, I didn't know what she had going on. I figured, hey, she was gonna tip me off. Somebody was buying a lot of Sudafed, cooking meth in the area, you know? And she says, Kyle, you're done. I said, What do you mean I'm done? She said, Look, you're being red flagged, look, you're you're going to multiple doctors, and you're getting um, you know, percocets here, oxycontin here, and that. She goes, I have to report you. I took an oath, and that's it. So, of course, I got sick to my stomach, I got worried, and uh, I went home and I only had one Vicodin left, guys. And what I had to do, my wife then was a school teacher, my kids would go off to school, so I flushed the last Vicodin down the toilet because I was so scared. And um I began to detox myself at home because I would pretend like I'd go to work during the day. I was a sheriff, I could manipulate my schedule, put my uniform on, then I would turn around, and then I'd come and lay sick during the day. And then I knew when I was coast was clear, I'd get out and then pretend, of course, I act like I would be coming home from work. So that's how I actually did it. So I thought everything was um, you know, everything was done with. I didn't think any, you know, nobody knew about my dirty little secret. And unfortunately, then eventually it all caught up with me. I went through first, I went through my I was going through my third term for re-election. I ran against the actual the police chief that was my next door neighbor. I ended up being beating him actually by six, I got 62% of the votes, you know, and they even tried to um even tried to pull another stunt on me to um derail me. Um I had a Twitter uh account at the time and it went by young sheriff and my Twitter account. I mean, I had rappers follow me, I had porn stars following me, I'd follow them back. Well, then they get into my Twitter and say, you know, you know, Kyle Overmeyer, the sheriff, is following porn stars, and tried to make a big episode out of that. What ended up backfiring on people because people actually embraced because I was kind of real, you know. Everybody come up and say, hey, I think it's kind of cool that you know you don't discriminate against anybody, you know, blah, blah, blah. So it kind of backfired on them. And I think that's what helped actually take me through the primary. Well, then eventually I got a phone call from the county prosecutor uh a couple months after, and he wanted me to meet him down in his office. And I said, What's going on? He says, Well, um, he goes, Are you addicted to opiates? I said, No. And he he says, Are you sure? I said, Look, I was on opiates for arthritis. I was prescribed. I said, I'll pee in a cup right now. I said, I'm clean, which I was physically, but mentally, of course, I was still struggling, you know, with the with the addiction. So immediately I get a hold of an attorney and I I retain one. So on uh what happened was August 23rd, 2016. Um, the county fair was always like one of the biggest things that went on in our county, especially for people like myself that were, you know, in politics and that would have to get re-elected because that's where all the people were, that's where a lot you gotta get all your votes from. And I was there for the ribbon cutting. And then that night at 6 30, I got a phone call. They had contacted my attorney. I had a 43-count indictment looking at 15 years in prison. And uh I was like, oh sh, you know, like I can't believe this. And of course, I told my wife right away then and my kids, look, it's all a bunch of BS, they're out to get me. Um wait, they they just want my job. So I went, I ended up going and uh going to the hearing. I turned myself in, and the next day I I bonded out on a $150,000 bond. And you know what I got? You know what I did? I continued to run for sheriff and because I didn't want anybody to know about my addiction, I wanted to make it out like it was everybody else, and I continued on. I marched in parades, I did debates, we did even phone tolls where my numbers were going through the roof. It made me more popular. I mean, people wanted to support me, they felt bad, they thought everybody was out to get me. Well, then my son Dylan, he was 12 at the time, and he was about to be 13. And uh prior to all this, uh Dylan and I went to a hunter safety through a hunter safety course together, and we were gonna um go hunting together and go deer hunting, and uh he wanted a crossbow for his birthday. So love my kids to death. I love Michaela and Dylan. I mean, the kids they're they're in my world, and so I went out and bought him a crossbow, and then I took it over to my my in-laws' house. A couple of weeks later, I get a phone call from my attorney. He's like, Hey, could you buy a crossbow? I said, Yeah, why? He says, Well, the prosecutor contacted me, and uh, you're gonna have a hearing. They're gonna try to violate your uh your bond for having a dangerous weapon. No, so lo and behold, I go to I go to court on November 3rd. I'll never forget, like it was yesterday. Um, I go to drop off Dylan at school. He looks at me, he says, Dad, I know you have court today. Um be home for dinner. My famous last words, I got this. I went, they revoked my bond, locked me up, it was over. 250,000 cash, no 10%, it had to be cash. And that is part part of the turning point of my recovery, too. Part two from getting you know red flagged at the pharmacy, then this, and that's when I had to surrender. They sent me to a county jail. I started to surrender to my parents, talked to them. Things were pretty rocky, and I'll get into that later on with my with my wife, and I didn't want to, you know, really reveal too much to my children. And that is actually where I went to my first uh AA meeting, actually, was there in Marion County jail, and it consisted of three people, one of those three being myself. So that's where I started to really dig down deep. Understand that I was an addict and I still needed help. Started talking about it. I started writing letters. I wrote letters to the um prosecutor, the judge, um, people sent support letters, and then eventually I worked out um a plea deal between my attorney and the prosecutor. Out of the 43 counts, I applied to 15 felony counts then. And uh they ended up taking me back to court on December 13th.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Let me ask you, what what were these? What were these? I know there's uh all these indictments and all these felonies. What were these? What were these?

SPEAKER_00 19:57

These were all for for the doctor shopping, um, theft of pills, and then they got me with theft of office for one of the accounts, too. That uh yes, um, but but the majority was all the doctor shopping and the stealing the pills, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Okay, so for anybody joining us later, uh, so you you you got into office, you're doing really good, things were going good, you got sick. Arthritis, arthritis is pain. You're in pain all the time, and you started on this, and addiction, when it takes a hold, it takes a hold. And it doesn't, you know, that's the one thing about addiction is it doesn't care what your job is, it doesn't care what your title is, it doesn't care if you're a man, woman, what uh your race or your religion, it comes and it takes over and it took over. And but then you you actually were you're I I mean I'm still kind of my mind is going all over with this story because you were able to detox at home by yourself while trying to maintain now. Granted, that's pride and ego taking over. Pride and ego jump in, and I still gotta be the man, I still gotta do this, I still gotta save face.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

You're you're exactly right, and plus that's that that shame pushing you so your children do not find out about your addiction. But don't get it twisted, guys. I was on the internet looking at different ways to to feed that addiction, still trying to replace that you know, that release of dopamine, but then I got too scared to order anything. I'm like, well, they're gonna find out about this next, you know. And so I of course, yeah, this this this stuff was really tough. And of course, mentally you continue to struggle from addiction because you obsess about it. I mean, you're you know, they say your brain, it takes over 18 months for that fog to actually get out of your brain. I mean, that fog was still there with me, guys. Even when I, you know, here I am sitting in jail, and then you know, I go back to get uh um sentenced, and this is where we. Lead up to getting sentenced on December 13th, uh, 2016. And they take me back, it is wall to wall with news media cameras, everybody. They even had a live camera on my residence during this time, um, one of the TV stations to see what was going on in my house, too. And um, I turned around, I was broken, I was crying. I apologized to everybody in that courtroom that was in that audience because I was truly sorry. And uh I turned around and the judge said, you know, what do you have to say for yourself? And I said, Judge, I'm sorry, I'm an addict, you know, I need I need help, I'm still struggling, and I'm sorry for what I did. And she said, you know what? I'll get you trait treatment, and uh I'm gonna give you the best treatment in the state of Ohio. You're going to prison for four years. And I thought, oh my God, what am I gonna do? And uh as we well know, because I'm sitting here with you two today, probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. And uh, but it was difficult at first. I was sent to intake at Grafton, Ohio, where I served my first 30 days in solitary confinement in the hole because they were gonna send me to protective custody. And uh what was interesting was uh, you know, there was no light in there, it was dark at all times, uh, no clock. And the only time I knew when it was time to eat when the wheels would turn on the that concrete floor and it would trigger me to say, okay, it's time to eat. But uh that was also the best time for me to realize where I needed to go and who I needed to be in life, because I could have gone one way or the other way. There's there's no reason why I couldn't have got out and been one of the best drug traffickers around because I knew the ins and outs and I had the plugs from working undercover, and I was street smart. But then I knew what I needed to do, the right thing. And um, I'm gonna tell you guys something. I went to Catholic school all my life, and uh I never knew God until then. Um, that's where God uh met Kyle Overmeyer, and I finally listened to him. You know, he whispered a lot all my life, but this time he was yelling at me and I needed to listen. And that's my first connection to truly be close to God. And uh, you know, you don't realize it at that moment until time goes on, but that's when it was. So I spent 30 days there. Um, they sent me to protective custody off the jump and because of my high-profile case. But when I got off the bus, I got greeted by everybody, and I had a guy take me in a cell and he says, Look, we know why you're here, so here, here's what I got. So he had a pack of pills ready for me. He said, The first one's on me, the next one's on you. And I said, Well, I'm gonna tell you something. There ain't gonna be a first one or a next one. I'm done. And that's where I set the tone for my sobriety and that uh what my recovery was while I was uh incarcerated for four years. Um, I stayed in protective custody for a few months, and eventually I signed out and I went to gender population with everybody. Um just it wasn't for me. I needed to move. Um, it was too much control in there, and then I was able to move on the yard, work out, and and and do my thing because four years was a long time. Um, yes, I got tried while I was in there. Um, there was a gang member that tried me, and uh he didn't have a good day. I handled it, you know, and that's where I set the tone where I was in recovery, and nobody was gonna come try to control me and walk on me and try to extort me. You know, um my roommate was um a member of the Aryan Brotherhood who shot tattoos, and I even got two tattoos while I was in prison. My my first father's day, I traded like 10 ramen noodles, and uh on my first father's day to pay homage to my kids, I got their names on the back of my each arm. Um, something to take home, you know. And uh they're proud of those, you know, and so am I. Um, you know, I I became an inmate. You know, I'm I'm 692-183. I actually got it tattooed on me. Um, I had to become an inmate for four years. You know, I I knew I could be an inmate and still stay sober, though, too. I mean, the the prison was flooded with drugs every day. I had access to anything I wanted, but I continued to stay abstinent. I I you know I I recovered out loud in prison, and people knew it. It got to the point where some of those individuals that I became friends with that struggled with addiction while they were in there, they would gravitate towards me because they wanted me to give them some advice and some of my strength too. And that's where I started to understand what I was gonna end up probably doing with my life. Um, I ended up getting them uh um a divorce while I was in prison. I went through bankruptcy. And honestly, by and I and I speak about this a lot because I there's no bones left in my closet, but on the day I got sentenced to four years, they played my jail phone calls of my mistress and I speaking. I had a girlfriend, I was cheating on my wife, and that's how my wife and kids found out. So when they when they uh when they they they wanted to bury me, they but they didn't they didn't bury me. You know, I took responsibility for my actions with with my ex-wife, with my children, and um I took it like a man, you know. Uh I did my time, I stayed sober. Um, you know, what I did, I did, you know. My my addiction was the the ultimate uh seed that uh made the criminal uh charges grow. And I took responsibility for all of them. I did my time. Um, but the best thing I did about um being in prison is I worked on myself every day. Um, you know, whether it be a gratitude list, and what was what was disheartening was you know, I went to prison at 42 years old, I'm 51 now. Guys, I didn't even know what the word gratitude was until I was locked up in a six by nine and I had everything taken away from me, and I had to share a toilet and and a room with somebody for four years, but I I needed that, that was part of my recovery. I needed to lose everything. I mean, I I truly believe that God strips people of things for reasons. I know, I mean, he he did it to me, but uh I know he knew I was strong enough and he brought out some of the best characteristics that I never knew I had. And everybody says, Oh, Kyle, I'm so oh, that sounds so terrible. No, it wasn't. That's that's part of the journey. He gave me a blessing and not a curse. That's what he gave me. Or I wouldn't be standing in front of you guys right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

In the in in the in the program, because we work the same program, we call it the gift of desperation, the gift, and it truly is a gift because it's what allows us to be willing to be open to hearing his message, and it it's uh and and it's the beginning of humility. And you know what? While you were talking, so this is November, right? And we're in uh it's uh sought-through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him. There's so many people that get that find God in jail. Oh, yes, and you find God in jail because now all of a sudden we're forced to meditate for the first time, you know. And we might have been praying our whole lives and kneeling and standing up and kneeling down and standing up again, you know, and that's just talking. But when we listen, suddenly that humility can come in. And and Kyle, dude, I'm telling you, I love you, I love how you share your story, and you were just our past becomes our best asset, and you have that, and it's so beautiful to see because I mean the humility that you have, you know, and the understanding, the way that, and I'm so glad that you're sharing it with our with our people today, because you know, there's people that are struggling out here, and they uh need to hear a story like yours that that just you know, I needed to find God, and God was with me all the time, and I found him. There he was.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

And all right, so sorry I interrupted, but you know, yeah, and it's all connected. No, and you know, finding God, like you know, when I was locked up for 30 days in the hole, I had to realize now that isolation created the elevation in my mind, it truly did, and and that's where like we we go back to Johnny. We were just talking about God, that's where you know He He never leaves us, he leads us, and that's where people get you know missed all screwed up. He he he's always been with me, but I never listened to him, and now I do every day. I talked, I talked, and I always say people will say, 'Who do you work for? I said, 'God, that he's my CEO, and I'm just I'm one of the board of trustees, you know what I mean? That's what I do. Yeah, I mean, he he's he, and you know what, and people like and that's another thing, you know. I'm so vulnerable, and I talk about it, and I'll keep talking about more because I really don't care what people think about me. I really don't. Only him up there, he's my judge. Everybody else, I guys, I don't care. I know I'm on the right path. He shows me, he guides me. I I let him drive and I sit in the back seat. That's what I do, and I'm gonna continue to do that. But if but if I didn't go through this, I didn't go do four years in prison, if I didn't go through addiction, if I didn't go through bankruptcy, if I didn't go through humiliation, I'll talk more about that here pretty soon. I would not be where I am today. But he wanted me to go through it, he wanted me to, and I'm grateful for it too. I'm grateful every day, every day, you know, and so um no, hey, something else I did to to understand other people's higher powers. So my workout partner was a blood who did seven years in federal prison, then he had to finish his state. He was a blood, he was a Muslim. So I used to get irritated because he was always on the prayer rug. And and I wanted to go get that money. That's what we called it in prison to go work out. And I say, hey, come on, Mario, let's go. I want to get that money. And I'm like, you're always on that prayer rug. I go, it irritates me. So he threw a Quran at me. And he said, understand it. I said, okay. So I ended up reading the Quran out of respect for his his religion religion. I went as far as I did Ramadan and I fasted for 30 days, sun up to sun down with him, too. I lost a bunch of weight, too. And but it made me understand and appreciate his religion because sometimes people are so misled about other people's beliefs, their higher powers, but we must respect them, you know. All in all, look, guys, we're we're praying to the same God, all right? We are Jesus Christ, you know. I mean, he's our savior. But I wanted to appreciate his religion religion, but when it comes down to it, I look at a relationship with our higher power. That's what it is, and so I even did that while I was in there. I mean, I got so deep into things, guys, that it changed me mentally, physically, and spiritually. And that's what I needed. I needed those things. I always say, hey, you know, I got a four-year degree already and another two-year degree. Well, I just got a additional four-year degree doing doing time for four years. It's called Life 101, you know, and I need it, I needed it. It was, and you know, peep, I mean, I never thought a million years I'd say I was grateful for doing time, you know. But I am I am. So no, I ended up, I got out, so I got out 2016. And um, there was a brief stint when I got out with uh like a couple weeks, I got to stay with this girl that come up and come up in my life um from from my uh from my past. And then um we hit she kicked me out, we had a falling out, and I ended up uh homeless. And uh I you know I'm on parole, I had an ankle monitor, and I had to find somewhere to um to flop because the you know, the pro officer says, hey, look, Kyle, if anybody anybody's gonna go back to prison, they're gonna send you back for a violation. So I called a woman, her and her girlfriend used to um send me cards. Um, she worked at the library um at Kerr State Community College, where I was actually a board of trustee there at one time, and I used to visit her. And her and her girlfriend always said, Look, if you need anything, uh um let me know. So by uh a roll of a dice, I called and she said, I told her what was going on. She says, Look, I got a spare bedroom with an air mattress. You can flop there. So I did. And that was what I called home for a while. And then it was time to get a um a job. And I don't know if you guys were aware of this, but so nobody's gonna hire the straight sheriff, you know, coming back. I had to be in my hometown of Fremont, Ohio. And uh um, I go back to this guy named Larry Bowman. Larry Bowman owned a couple of these famous recipe chicken restaurants, and you know, I used to frequent there all the time, had a good relationship. So I stopped in, kind of laid it on him, and said, Hey, you ain't got nothing open, do you? He goes, matter of fact, I need somebody on that fryer. And uh, so my first job, I was frying chicken, 950 an hour back in my hometown. And uh so flopping there on an air mattress, frying chicken, still had an ankle monitor, and uh it was interesting because people started to find out from around the community I was there, so they came in and started taking pictures of me and creating memes and putting them on Facebook. And uh instead of feeling sorry for myself, I turned it up. I started hitting more meetings, getting closer with my children, working that program, and it made me even stronger. And then eventually I was uh going to a lot of meetings and I met an individual that uh said to me, He says, Hey, you know, we know who you are, and you know, um just wondered what you're doing with your life now since you're out of prison. I said, Well, I'm frying chicken right now. He goes, Oh, he says, uh how much you make? I said, 950 an hour. He goes, Would you come work midnight shift at the treatment center and oversee these guys while they're sleeping for 1150? I'm just like, I'm in.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

So I left frying chicken and then ended up uh working there. And you know, I started to realize even more that um man, this is this is where I need to be. I need to be helping people because uh I could relate with people, people would listen to me. I was a voice of reason. Um I knew how to love on them, you know. You gotta love on people. Yeah, and uh um then I ended up getting enough money. I ended up getting an apartment in the hood where I used to kick doors in. That was all I care for. And and it was interesting because I move into the hood, I'm moving into the hood, and a lot of the dope boys I knew from you know, you know, working dope cases. One of them shows up, walks up, you know, and they're like, What's up, Kyle? I said, Yeah, I'm moving in. They're like, Well, welcome to the neighborhood, but remember, you're one of us now. And they embraced me. It was so interesting. Even some of those guys, you know, I didn't have a whole lot yet. I didn't have much food. Some of those guys bringing me down plates of food, you know, chicken, collie greens, you know, I was uh living the life, you know, I was the street life, but I was still, you know, staying on the right path. And then um I continued to um work there, and then uh November, I got out April 6th of 2020 is when I got out, and then November 22nd, 2020 comes around and I have a woman rego.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Oh no, this is getting so good. Right at the good part, Kyle.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Come back, Kyle.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

Okay, so Kyle's having technical difficulties. I'm telling you, figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Hopefully, he'll figure it out and and join us again. Um what an amazing story so far. I I saw a glimpse a blip. What do you think of this story so far?

SPEAKER_02 39:44

This is wild. I can relate so much to that. Like a lot of full circle moments. We're not talking about the trauma he was went through being a being a person.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Yeah, I've still got so many questions.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

You know? I have so many questions plays a role in it.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Anyone who knows me knows I have questions.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

This has me on the edge of my seat.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Oh, there's a I saw a mute and menu. Uh, let's jump over in the comments real quick and just say hey to our friends that are here. Uh uh Keely Kelly is here. Uh thank you for joining us. Tiffany, our friend Tiffany, who's here. Amber's here. Kindle, Kindle Ray's here. Kindle took a break from walking. Uh what Kindle has walked over 9,400 miles now. And who else do we got? Amber's Stacey. Hello, hello, Michael, hello, Jessica's here. Um Tiffany. I'm so glad everybody's been able to join us. Was Chase in here?

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Uh so many people have been in here and commented. Love you all, love the comments. Johnny always got questions. That's for sure, Tiffany. That's uh, it's that's kind of my job.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

I have so much to say. I'm like, I'm blown away right now. And how much like both of our stories are in there too.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Like, we're so connected and I mean, I mean, the the gift of desperation that we find in jail, right? You know, uh Kyle found his gift of desperation there. He found God there. Read it, reading the Quran there. That's uh that's a that's tough, you know. Um and uh and you did the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Yeah, but in in the the humble pie he had, like he literally ate that up humility. Oh, wait, but he's coming back.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

He popped out, he's gonna pop back in. Hopefully, his wife will help him. He had he had trouble uh logging in to begin with. So hopefully uh his wife will help him and uh and we'll get this figured out. But yeah, you know, Krista, you uh same thing, right? You found it's you got your gift of desperation in jail.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Yeah, and um I I can relate to the growing up Catholic and not really knowing you know who God is, but you don't know how to actually surrender. He's back, he's back, he's back. You left us on the edge of our seats.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Well, I I know it kicked me off for some reason.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Well, you're back. You're back.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

All right, I'm back because I was rolling.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

We f we filled in while you were gone. You were on a roll, you were eating you were cooking fried chicken, and then you were you were on uh on the the blow-up bed.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

They bring you they bring you greens, yes, and then then um everything's going smooth, I'm doing my thing, and then you know, I'm not so I'm I'm not coming out on Facebook, social media doing anything. And uh one midnight shift when I was working, I decided to get back on Facebook, and I thought it was time to come out and talk and be transparent and honest and start talking about my journey, and I did, and it exploded in a good way, in a great way. People were so glad to see me, they reached out, I started to talk about addiction, the struggles, and you know, was and then I would post things and talk and some of my journey in prison, and people started to reach out to me, they could relate, people were asking out for help, you know, could can you help me? Can you help my child? And I knew I'd done the right thing. And uh it got so far that eventually then um there was a woman that came along and uh she reached out to me and uh Had been involved with some uh nonprofit things and some things that in the addiction, along with her job that she would support and was community-oriented. She said, Hey, I love your story. Um, I would love to sit out and talk to you. I get up northwest Ohio sometime. Um, could I could I meet with you and your girlfriend and uh eat lunch? I said, I can meet with you and eat lunch, but I don't have no girlfriend. Um, wouldn't you know after we meet November 22nd, 2020, we end up falling in love, and six weeks later we go get we get married.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

That's my son's birthday.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Is it really? Yeah, we got married six weeks after that.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Oh, I love a love story.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

This is good, and uh so Jennifer, I was living in the hood then, and uh she believed in me, she believed in what I wanted to do, and I told her what I was gonna do. And um, she's like, All right, and actually she asked me to marry her, and because she said, What are you doing? She said, What are you doing on January 2nd? It was a Saturday. I said, I don't know. She goes, You want to go get married? I said, Let's do it. So we did. We went and got married, and we met at we got married at you know, at this place called Serenity Farms. It's interesting. I have the Serenity Serenity uh prayer tattooed on my arm, and uh kind of meant to be, and we got married, and I was good. So she was living down by Columbus because I live down by we live down by Columbus, and she and I was living up north, like two hours away, and so it was gonna be a long distance marriage. So we're out eating pit pizza seven days afterwards, and the phone rings, and the guy says, Hey, is this Kyle Overmeyer? And I said, Yeah, he's like, Hey, you know, we just opened a treatment center, we get out of a treatment center opened down in Columbus, Ohio, and love your story, found it, think you could do some things for us. Would you be interested in a job in business development in Columbus? I'm like, God's talking again. So boom, I moved down there and um people had started to reach out, want me to cut pop in and start speaking. And I did. Actually, one of my first speeches I did was um the exchange club that was a local exchange club in um in uh Fremont. It was community. The president reached out to me, and I was a little, you know, hesitant to do it because of you know, everybody was kind of mad, some people were still mad at me, and that he said, No, come share your story. It did, it was one of the best things I ever did. They embraced it. They embraced me because of my honesty and transparency and being relatable. And uh so I started working and I come home from work the one time, and Ken's like, you know, you're getting all these people wanting you to speak and that. She goes, Why don't you just have like a little LLC and put it together? It's called KO addiction. And I'm like, Yeah, because everybody growing up called me KO knockout, I don't have a middle name, and I was a boxer and knockout addiction and with boxing gloves, and we called it a day, and that's how KO addiction started.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Wow, she's a smart girl.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

She is, she's she is. She just helped me figure this out again, too, by the way. So um, you know, so uh, you know, she's been she's been a blessing, and uh so we got married, and then I worked at a couple different uh you know treatment centers. Um I signed a uh a book deal two years ago. I will be done by the end of this year now and be releasing my book after the first of the year. Um it's gonna be called Prison Prodigy.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Yeah, so um I were and now I I got it down to write a chapter a week. Uh and uh I work with meet with my co-author who's who's amazing. And um now I, you know, I'm at the point I'm a director or director of business development. I oversee a 11 outpatient treatment centers here in central Ohio. Um, like I said, I speak, I do a lot of panel work. I was at Ohio State University Law School today. Um, tomorrow night I'll actually be at a National Association of Healthcare Executives. Um, I've been picked to be on the panel for their scholarship dinner tomorrow night. I'll be doing that at downtown uh Columbus. Um, travel the country, do speaking gigs, different places, recovery events. Even I'm gonna be doing a builders uh conference at Ohio State. They want me to come in and talk about the stigma. Um, you know, God has opened up so many doors for me, and he continues to every day. Like here I am on with you guys tonight. You know, I'm did one earlier a little bit ago that I'm doing today, and then tomorrow I'd go back to back. Um, I love doing this stuff. I think it's great to share the word because if you can touch one person, it's in that's what it's all about. And you don't know when the right person's listening, you know? And you know, life's been so great. I mean, my kids were all back together. I even get along with my ex-wife. We do uh, we actually her and her husband, we do family things together because of you know, my kids are all grown, they both graduate from college, have um, they actually have great jobs. My daughter's in education, her husband's a chemical engineer. My son graduated from Tiffany University, where I did on a baseball scholarship. He is uh in sales in Arizona. Um, and now I have two grandchildren and another one on the way, December 26th. So, I mean, what more you want in life, you know? And God keeps giving it to me, but I got to keep writing chapters every day, but that's okay. I'm grateful for that writing. I'm grateful for those chapters. Um, and uh I'm working on my pardon too, but with the state of Ohio. Um, you know, the story will always be there, but if um God wants to bless me and he thinks it's time for me to get a pardon, I would love that too. That would be a great um um piece of my my journey and my story. Um, I work with Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. I've just been um appointed to uh the governor's um coalition. They pick one male inmate that was uh restored, and then one female, they just appointed me in June. So I'm on on that. Um I go back, yeah. So I get back to the prisons now. I go into prisons and speak and give them hope. I've been back to the prison, I actually served my time time in um twice um and saw some of the guys that I did my time with that are doing light bits in there, you know. But I'm still giving them hope. Um, I get into the jails, I work with first responders. I do critical incident training here for Franklin County Sheriff's Office. Um, I'm working with the first responders, they've accepted me too, because I, you know what, I accepted responsibility, my actions, and I and I and I use my addiction alpha for uh a good thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Um I've got two questions, Kyle. Kyle, I mean, and I know our audience, and there's two questions that they're thinking right now. Well, the first one is your relationship with your kids and family when you got out. I mean, eventually it fixed. How long did that take? What was the process of the forgiveness? Because I want this is you know, recovery, recovery is all about God forgives us. We forgive ourselves, we ask for amends, we hope that they forgive too.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

It took a while, but I had to put the work in. You know, I had to, I can't only talk it, but I gotta walk it, and I gotta continue to talk it and walk it, which I do, and that's where I am where I because I put the work in. But also, one of the toughest things for me, and I hope some of the listeners hear this too, because you guys are gonna probably agree 110% with me. Forgiving yourself. Yeah, I had such a hard time forgiving myself for what I did, especially to my family, because at the beginning, we think we're the victims, and we're not. Our families and our loved ones are the victims, they're the they're the true victims of this disease, not us. And that's where I had to get it right. But it took my son when he was 20 years old, we were together, and now he's 22, and we're walking together, and I said, Nylon, you know, I'm I'm truly sorry for all I did. I just want you to know that. He stops me and looks at me and says, mind you, he's 20 years old and says, Dan, what are you talking about? I said, It's over with. It's over. And I'm like, okay. So I had to have a 20-year-old kid, so to speak, tell a man that been that was the sheriff, been down from prison, made it through addiction, to tell me about forgiveness.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

Kind of cool, actually. Yeah, it shows me what kind of kid he is, but both of my kids are amazing kids. They showed me what resilience truly was. You know, some people think I'm resilient. Nah, they got it. They got it.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Oh I mean, and I I ask that because you know, uh when being in recovery, and there's so many people that you know we have relationships with that we talk to all the time, and the children, uh, they're still trying to get that relationship, and they're trying to get that. So so this is this is that hope, and it out of the mouth of babes, right? Out of the mouth of babes, even at 20, there's still babes, you know. And uh, okay, so my second question, and this is uh this is so you're you're you're in jail, you're in prison, you're locked up with people that you locked up, yeah. Yep. How did I mean? Because I know you told us you went through some some some shenanigans, but yeah, but this was this had to be, you know, were they cool with it? Like, hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 54:14

Yeah, yeah, it yeah, they were cool with it. And I'm gonna tell you another interesting story. They were cool with it, you know. I crossed paths with so many people, so many people that knew me, knew each other. It was it was crazy. But so when you're in prison, you get invited to Thanksgiving and stuff. So my first Thanksgiving, I got invited, so you bring a bowl, you bring a break, or something, and I'll never forget sitting there, and I looked around and I looked at all the people. There was about 10 of us at the table, and we're all, you know, we're all chopping up, eating, and you know, and I look around, I go, guys, look around at each other, and they're like, Yeah. And I said, You notice anything interesting? And they're like, Yeah, you're the only white guy. And I'm like, Okay, whatever. And I'm like, no, think about this, guys. Your blood, your crib, you know, you're you're you're you know, you're Latino, you know, you're you guys are from different sides. I said, why does it take prison to bring us all together? Yeah, why can't we do this on the outside? You know, I said, I was a cop, and you guys, and you guys, and you guys are messing with me. You know, you guys, we're we're breaking bread, we're chopping it up, but we can't do this on the outside, can we? But once once we're all forced to be together, we do. So why can't we? And they're like, you know what, Kyle, you're right. There were so many aha moments, you know, while I was incarcerated, you know? Um, you know, so they they had uh uh after so they had um Black History Month in prison. And so you if you wrote an essay, you could win a prize. So I turned around, I wrote um, I wrote an essay about Martin Luther King Jr., was a great leader who uh was incarcerated in Alabama. So I wrote a long essay about that and kind of coincided with my own experience in being incarcerated too. So I'll never forget I get a knock on my door. This black woman comes and she says, I'm looking for Overmeyer. And she's got a least famous recipe chicken dinner, mind you. And that's where I ended up working, and that's what you want. And I said, Well, that's me. And she's like, No, no, it's not you, it's not you. And I said, She goes, Let me see your ID. I said, It's Overmeyer 692183. And she says, Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, it is you. I said, What? She goes, I thought you were good you I thought you were gonna be black. How would you and she goes, I really apologize for for judging you like that, and I was like, Isn't that interesting? You know, and then I end up crying chicken at leash, you know, that was my thing. But those were one of the those are some of the things that I experienced along the way while I was incarcerated that I'm so damn grateful for. I mean, how many people can say that I've been through what I've been through? Not many. And I smile every day. I I I enjoy seeing the man in the mirror now. Not that I'm a great looking guy by any means, but now I can look at it. I got no shame no more. I don't hate myself anymore. You know, I have self-love, which I struggled with, and I think a lot of men struggle talking about it, but I don't because you gotta talk about it. If not, it won't ever get fixed. It's like in everything else. And one of the my famous last lines I tell everybody your past does not define you, it truly refines you.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

I love this guy. Oh, I say that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

Kyle, thank you so much, dude. Thank you for being here and for being so open, so honest, and telling us this like it is, you know. And you know, I think that uh anybody who hears you hears hope. The the love you have for for God and the understanding you have with God, you know, and a lot of people it takes it takes a dark time to find that, but that it doesn't have to. And you know, I hope I hope people figure that out that that it doesn't take getting into a jail cell and being locked in solitary for 30 days to find God. No, it doesn't. And uh, you know, God's everywhere and always there to to to be with us. Thank you so much, dude. I want you to come back here after this book comes up, and and and and we'll we'll have a a book sign-in party or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Definitely one more thing. I want you guys to know to go back to God. My wife and I put icing on the cake and sealed the deal. Two years ago, we we got baptized in front of our whole congregation.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

So um, yeah, just want to give hope to everybody out there and uh all the love I can and the hope. Plant that seed of hope because believe me, I planted it and I see it grow every day.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Every day, every day. I just want to I once again just thank you, thank you, thank you uh for being here, for sharing with us. And uh, we can't wait to get to for you to have your book out. You're uh, you know, I'm we're gonna work on our we have this Freedom Fest event coming. I told you about it in January 23rd to the 25th. I'm hoping you can get out to that. We'll figure that out and talk later. But uh, you know, if uh how do people find you? If they want to talk to Kyle, if they need if somebody wanted to reach out, how do they do that?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

All right, I I'm pretty I'm pretty transparent, honest, open, blunt. I don't care. Call me 419-455-0793. I I look, that's how the last um speaking gig found me on one of the podcasts I did. They called me out of Chicago and they were shocked I answered, but I answered all my phone calls, okay? Um, you can find me Kyle Overmeyer on uh Facebook. You know, you can find me there. I mean, people send me messages every day, and I'm on LinkedIn too. I do LinkedIn a lot too. So I just uh whatever, you know, however you want to call me, or or my here's my um my uh Kyle Overmeyer7 at gmail.com. I mean, uh it used to be uh it used to be a Kyle over K Overmeyer 692183, and I I had to shut that one down. So but uh yeah, I'm I'm personable. What you see is what you get with me, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

Kyle, thank like I said, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:05

Seriously, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

This has been this has been a real treat for us, and uh, I know our listeners are are grateful, they're all saying such great things in the comments. So uh uh everybody love you. We'll see you next week once again. Kyle, thank you so much, and uh we'll talk soon. With that, I pass.