Former addict overcomes barriers to reclaim her life

KAYSVILLE—Amy Daeschel didn’t expect to become a drug addict – but she did. Daeschel had 12 foot surgeries and was prescribed an extensive amount of OxyContin. That combined with trauma in her personal life, led her into addiction, and at one point, homelessness. Drug related charges cost her her job and made it difficult to find a new one. Eventually Daeschel received the treatment she needed and with hard work has been able to reclaim her life and help others do the same.

Daeschel was a panelist at The Power of Opportunities event held recently at Davis Technical College to announce the partnership between the school and RASA-Legal to help individuals expunge records to be able to access more opportunities. 

“There are some in Davis County who don’t even darken our doorway because they think that’s a barrier to attending Davis Tech,” said Davis Tech President Darin Brush. “As we work to knock down the barriers for anyone who can benefit from a technical education, this is just one more thing that we can add. One very important piece that we were missing. So thank you to Noella Sudbury, CEO and Founder of Rasa for seeking me out and making this partnership possible.”

“We are grateful to be in this space with you,” said Sudbury. “I love that we are focused on education tonight because for me, education absolutely changed my life.”

Sudbury said she is an attorney and started her career as a public defender. “What some people don't know about me is that my mother grew up in poverty in rural Utah and her dad worked for the mines.”

She was one of 10 children, said Sudbury. “When my grandfather became physically unable to work for the mines, he couldn’t get a job because he was illiterate. He never learned to read and never got an education. My mother also never got an education. So from the time I was a little girl, she really pushed me to get an education and that is why going to college got me really interested in law and led me down this wonderful path.”

Her work as a public defender with those impacted by having a criminal record led Sudbury to develop Rasa, a legal tech company on a mission to provide simple and affordable criminal

record expungement to clear a path for access to housing and jobs, higher wages, and a better quality of life for those who have been held back by background checks. The company developed sophisticated computer software that analyzes criminal record databases and streamlines many of the complex and time-consuming steps associated with determining eligibility for expungement. The tool is free for students. 

“So I love the mission of the college,” she said. “I’m so excited to partner with Davis Tech to help students who may be struggling with a record identify this barrier early on in their education before they’re even going out into the workforce and just see if they have a pathway to expungement and getting those records cleared so they can have more opportunities in life.”

“I was 37-years-old and I got my first charge,” said Daeschel. “My first charge was actually in Davis County. I got stopped by a sheriff just right there on Main Street for jaywalking. I was in an active addiction. They searched my backpack and that was my first charge. So that was my first introduction to the criminal justice system.”

Daeschel said over the span of two years she accumulated charges of criminal trespass and possession. “The charges were all misdemeanor minor offenses. I was in and out of jail and being released back into my addiction. But the seventh time was when the funding was initiated for Operation Rio Grande and they offered me treatment. I jumped at the chance and went into treatment and I’ve been sober since 2017.”

Daeschel now holds a Master of Social Work and is certified as a clinical social worker and advanced substance disorder counselor but she hit a lot of roadblocks along the way due to her criminal background.

“I couldn’t return to my field (in real estate) because of my criminal history,” she said. “So all of my prior skills, all of my past knowledge, all of the work that I put in up to 37 years, I wasn’t able to walk back into the workforce that I knew.”

She realized that she needed to expand her education to get into another field. “Early on I knew I wanted to give back what was given to me,” Daeschel said. “I wanted to be able to show up for another human the way that somebody showed up for me.”

To pursue a social work degree she needed to be licensed and knew she would have to address her criminal history if she wanted to be a licensed therapist. It took her four and a half years to finally expunge her entire criminal history.

That is why she is championing this partnership between Rasa and Davis Tech.

“A lot of these people that start this process do not follow through with the process,” she said. “You’re asking these individuals to relive their trauma, to once again go in front of somebody and have to explain why they should be worthy to move on with their life.”λ