A Violent Sex Crime Broke Her, Retired

A Violent Sex Crime Broke Her, Retired Sheriff Recovering From PTSD. When Trauma Breaks the Strongest: A Retired Florida Sheriff’s Deputy Shares Her Journey From Violent Crime Scenes to PTSD Recovery. In the heart of Orange County, Florida, where the sun and theme parks often mask the darker truths of urban life, violent crime remains an ongoing concern. With a violent crime rate of 836 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2023, significantly higher than the national average, law enforcement officers in the area are exposed to deeply traumatic scenes on a regular basis. It is also promoted across their Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , Medium and other platforms.

Donna Michaels knows this firsthand. A retired Orange County Sheriff's Deputy, Michaels spent years responding to violent sex crimes, tragic accidents, and gut-wrenching child deaths. One case still haunts her to this day, a brutal gang sexual assault involving a teenage girl, discovered wandering the streets in a drug-induced haze, her body covered in graffiti. The injuries were severe. "She didn’t just survive the attack, she survived the betrayal," Donna recalls. “One of the suspects in the attack was her own brother. And to make it worse, her own mother actively obstructed the investigation.” The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast episode is available for free on their website , Apple Podcasts , Spotify and most major podcast platforms.

The trauma of that investigation didn’t fade when the case stalled. It followed Donna. “We were up against walls that no amount of law enforcement training prepares you for,” she said during a recent interview on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show, available on Apple and Spotify podcast platforms. A Violent Sex Crime Broke Her, Retired Sheriff Recovering From PTSD.

For Donna, the trauma didn’t stop when she hung up the badge. It lingered, a constant companion that took the form of cumulative PTSD, a condition many officers suffer in silence. “Every time I thought I had moved past it, the memories came back,” she says. “We don’t talk enough about what happens after the uniform comes off.” Look for supporting stories about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium , Blogspot and Linkedin .

From the Front Lines to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Donna took her story public. She began sharing her experiences across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, hoping that openness might help others who were silently battling similar demons. Her vulnerability struck a chord.

It was through this transparency that her book, Courageously Broken: A Memoir About Overcoming Adversity and Conquering the Battle Scars of Life, came to life. In it, Donna recounts her journey from a small town and an abusive home to the Navy, and eventually, to law enforcement. She tells of skydiving with Navy SEALs and investigating child drownings, moments of courage and collapse alike. “I didn’t write it because I had all the answers,” she says. “I wrote it because people need to know they’re not a