Her journey through addiction and recovery came full circle in drug court

We recently became aware of an unusual story. It begins in a Pierce County courtroom with a teenager struggling with addiction and ends, for now, in the same courtroom with a recovering adult and a completely different attitude.

Cody Nagle is 38 years old. Born and raised in the Seattle area, she got into trouble as a teenager.

“Looking back now, I thought I was such an adult,” Nagle said. “It started the same way I think most young people did, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, smoking cigarettes and smoking marijuana.” And for me it became an alternative to being self-conscious about my appearance and behavior, especially in social situations , felt very uncomfortable.”

Then came Nagle's first of many run-ins with the judiciary.

“My first real arrest occurred shortly after my 18th birthday, and it was related to my drug use and trying to find means to fulfill that purpose,” she said. “After that first arrest and conviction, I had 20 more arrests by then. “I finally found a path to recovery.”

From the age of 18 to the age of 26, Nagle shuttled in and out of the justice system. In the second half of this time, she found a partner and had a child, but still struggled with addiction. Then, this moment.

“I remember sitting in the car with my son and him looking at my arms and me bleeding from a wound caused by the drug use of my injections,” she said. “That was him.” He was maybe 18 months old and he was crying, “Mommy, you're hurt.” And I have this vivid memory of it and I was like, What do I do? You think your kids can't see it, but my goodness, how he was. I’m sure he doesn’t remember, but yes, my toddler crying over my wounds was hard on me.”

That was 12 years ago. Nagle tried several times to recover – inpatient and outpatient – but it hadn't worked. Then she was arrested one last time.

“I remember those three days better than I should, when I was retreating on the floor of that prison cell, thinking, 'What's going to happen to my son, what's going to happen to my home?', all these things I suddenly “had to lose,” she said. “Then the public defender came to me with the opportunity to take a drug treatment case.”

Pierce County corrections officials gave Nagle a choice: serve up to six years in prison or enter a court-supervised treatment program. Something clicked for Nagle. She chose the program.

“I had a lot of things in my life, from my previous attempts at recovery, that probably affected my ability to finally make it,” she said. “I had some brief periods of sobriety and recovery, and so I knew what that felt like. So my life looked different than it had in the past. I had suffered from homelessness in the past and was essentially on my own. I had nothing and no one to answer to. This time I had my son and my partner.”

Nagle walked across the street from the Pierce County Jail to the treatment program offices.

“The woman looked at me and said, 'You've been hospitalized seven times.' They can't teach you anything you don't already know. “At some point the decision will be yours,” Nagle said. “I don't know if I've ever realized this before.” For me, inpatient treatment meant getting a little more sleep and eating a little more. They wanted to fix me, so to speak. And instead this woman said, “You could do a treatment program.” You know everything about your condition. It really was like someone looked at me and said, 'Nobody can do this for you anymore.' It's you.” And not only do you have to do it, you can do it.”

Nagle said she was told that if she failed, she would receive the maximum prison sentence. Luckily, she made it through the treatment program. She said she feels lucky to have overcome her struggles. She knows that many people don't do this and that she wouldn't have done it without the love and support she had.

Nagle pulled out of her dangerous turn in a big way. In 2014, she married her partner Erik, who had been there during her recovery struggles, in a ceremony in Port Orchard. Erik is a Senior Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy. The following year, the couple transferred to the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. Cody says being part of a 12-step community helped her recovery. She looked for work with employers who wouldn't check her felony convictions. She found it, inspiration and encouragement, while working as a secretary in a small law firm.

“That excited me, and I ended up meeting another young lawyer, becoming friends with her, and she said, 'You can do it.' Law school is hard, but not impossible,” she said. “It’s not as hard as the things you’ve already done.”

Nagle completed and received her bachelor's degree online, then transferred to Syracuse University College of Law and then completed an internship at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where she was later hired as a public engagement consultant. She passed the bar exam in Washington, DC last February

Nagle and her family want to return to the Tacoma area in the near future, so she applied to become a member of the Washington State Bar Association. And this is where this part of her story comes full circle. Earlier this month, she walked into the Pierce County Courthouse, raised her right hand and was sworn in by Judge Ed Murphy, the same judge who ran her drug court program:

“You can have a tremendous impact on people's lives if they are willing to let you in and make that change, and people will be held accountable,” Judge Murphy said. “As Cody said, there was a counselor who had just told her, 'Look, you're at a point where you either have to die or accept some changes,' and that was for whatever reason , the right time, the right message that clicked and resonated. It's going, and you just don't know when that's going to happen.”

The day after I met her, Nagle traveled back to the East Coast. Before we said goodbye, I asked her if she had any final comments. She paused and then said this:

“I just think it's important for people to know that we can change, that we can become what maybe we didn't even know we could become.” And it's important that we as humans , which we consider hopeless, do not give up. I think it's easy for people in the public, especially in Seattle, and given the kind of crisis that people are going through right now, whether it's being homeless or suffering from a substance use disorder, whatever it is that they're going through When you're going through mental health crises, it's easy to be scared and angry when you look at it from the outside.”