I don't know even know where to begin. I've worked in youth development off and on for the last 13 years starting when I volunteered at my local YMCA when I was in high school. The last 3 years I've spent running 2 Boys & Girls Club in the Bay Area in CA. The Clubs I've worked at are both in very rough parts of town and we work with kids who need a lot of help. I have no criminal record, never been arrested, and only time I was pulled over was in 2009 for a speeding ticket for going 70 in a 65.

On November 21, 2014 that all changed. It was 7:30 PM. Our Club stays open til about 9:30 PM on Fridays for our members 13 and over so teenagers have somewhere safe to go instead of hang out on the streets. At this time I was watching a group of kids play Xbox. At that point a Police Officer walks in the room with about 5 kids behind him and asks if he can speak with me. He takes me outside to the parking lot and immediately puts me in handcuffs and telling me I'm not under arrest but only detained. I'm in shock and confused and asking him what is going on and he isn't saying much, just that they need more information. A parent had called the police about 20 minutes earlier and told them that I had spent most of the day brutally sexually assaulting her 5 year old son. 10 minutes later I was in handcuffs. I was held in handcuffs in the parking lot for close to an hour. My employees saw me, parents dropping off their kids saw me, kids saw me, and the high school basketball I help coach saw me as well as the exited the gym. I tried to explain to the cop that we had cameras covering every inch of the facility and we could easily go in and check the footage and he said they'd do it eventually. After an hour I was finally taken to the Police station.

Once at the station I was forced to strip naked while they took all my clothes as evidence. They took DNA samples as well. The fear was overwhelming. I kept asking when I could leave, when I could get a phone call, all my questions were shrugged off. I was in a cell by 10 PM. No rights had been read. No one knew where I was.

Every hour for the next 11 hours I banged on the door to my cell to get the attention of the jailer and to ask "Am I under arrest? At what point can I speak to a lawyer? When can I make a phone call? When can I leave?" The jailer had answers to none of the questions and would "Go ask someone" and then return with no answers and ignore me. Finally around 9 in the morning an officer came back to speak to the jailer so I tried my luck with him. When I explained my situation he let me make a phone call, (at this I'm still dont know what charges I'm being held on) I try and call my parents but it's long distance so I call my girlfriend who hasnt heard from me in about 15 hours to tell her to call my parents and that I'm in jail.

At that point my mother calls back and briefly tells me not to say anything and they are getting a lawyer and flying down. She then speaks to the jailer to find out my charges. 18 misc counts of sexual assault, oral copulation of a minor, multiple counts of soddomy...it was the absolutely worst thing to hear. My bail was $725,000 and the different charges added up to around 60 years in prison.

2 hours later the detective comes in and takes me to a room for me to give a statement and to finally read me my rights and place me under arrest. Only 16 hours after being put into handcuffs! The detective was being all good cop and wanted to get to know me until as soon as he read me my rights I told him I wasn't going to say anything without speaking to my attorney first. His entire demanor changed and turned cold and tried to get me to think I was making a mistake. He then walked me back to my cell and told me "Good luck in county."

I was fed (first meal in almost 20 hours of captivity) and then driven 30 minutes to county jail. This was the most terrifying experience of my entire ordeal. Watching the local cop hand over my file to 15 sheriff's deputies and watching their faces turn to disgust and look at me was devastating. I've spent a good portion of my life trying to be a good person and help other people out and to have all of these people who've never met you and their first impression of you is you're the biggest piece of shit on the planet is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

I spent the first night in county jail on suicide watch for obvious reasons. The next morning I was approached by a mental health technician who asked if we could talk. After a brief profile on me she allowed me to talk and explain that I wasn't hear because of an investigation turned up all this evidence or I had been wanted for a while, but this was a phone call made by a parent who thought I was letting her son get bullied too much. She stopped writing and told me her son coaches a youth soccer team and that this is his biggest fear. She ended up getting me my own cell and explained to the guards on my rotation the situation (yes, you do get treated like shit based off your charges and yes I was terrified of someone coming into my cell at night and beating the shit out of me or worse).

After 3 days of waiting I was finally released the day before Thanksgiving. They could only hold me for 3 days before they had to release me or arraign me but because they had arrested me Friday night, my clock didn't start til Monday. I was released late Wednesday night. They also had a special type of arrest warrant that they only needed a judge to sign instead of going to the DA with evidence and then signing off on the arrest.

I met with my lawyer the day after Thanksgiving. He said before everything could be dropped the DA was waiting for the results of the DNA test to come back, except the county had a 4-6 month backlog of forensic evidence testing so I wouldn't be able to return to work until that was finalized.

I got the call on April 13 that none of my dna was found on the kid or vice versa. It's a strange thing to celebrate something you already knew but it was a massive relief.

The Club I work at has been supportive from the start. I was placed on paid leave while waiting for the test results. I'm supposed to start back there within the month. This incident was very contained and didn't make it public or in the papers or Internet. Yet I still feel my reputation and career of working with kids is over.

I don't know how to proceed from here. I feel I have some sort of grounds for a civil suit against the police department. But if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions I would appreciate it.