The Hernia Check

What do you do when a Nebraska State trooper accuses you of sexual assault? Brienne Splittgerber dreamed of following in her father's footsteps and becoming a criminal investigator for the Nebraska State Patrol. In the fall of 2014, at the age of thirty-four, the married mother of two finally got her chance when she was selected to join the Nebraska State Patrol's fifty-sixth recruitment camp. One week into training, the aspiring investigator told five members in her chain of command about the boot camp physical examination she experienced six weeks earlier. A male physician, contracted by the patrol, asked her to expose her genitals and anus during the examination. There was no physical contact. She found it "weird." Splittgerber expected a criminal investigation to be started, but her supervisor, Captain Mark Williams, swept the whole thing under the rug. He knew how she was. And like everyone said, if there was a female chaperone present, then you're okay. Angry and embarrassed, Splittgerber stayed at boot camp and waited, but she wasn't the type to let things go. A year later, in the fall of 2015, five days after Captain Mark William's funeral, Trooper Brienne Splittgerber set into motion a chain of events that would ultimately sabotage her own dream and wreak havoc on the lives of others.