Not the judge.
And certainly not the person entitled to determine the punishment.
There were nights when I wished the process were faster.
When I wanted somebody to call and tell me that Devlin had been removed from duty permanently, that everybody involved had confessed, and that the whole country now understood exactly what happened.
But justice built around one person's impatience would have been a dangerous kind of justice.
I knew that.
So I waited.
And while I waited, the public story became increasingly complicated.
A local television station obtained a short clip showing part of the traffic stop.
It began after Devlin had already pulled me from the car.
Viewers could see the orange gown, the black sedan, and the sergeant pressing me against the hood.
The recording ended before the federal vehicles arrived.
Within hours, people were sharing it across social media.
Some were horrified.
Others questioned whether I had resisted.
A few insisted that my federal title shouldn't entitle me to avoid a speeding citation.
On that point, they were correct.
It didn't.
I had acknowledged the speeding.
I was prepared to accept the appropriate consequences.
But the central issue wasn't whether a senior official should receive a ticket.
It was whether an officer could use a traffic stop as an excuse to humiliate someone, ignore reasonable verification, apply unnecessary force, and attempt to access material he had been warned to leave alone.
The conversation quickly became political.
Commentators argued over racial bias.
Police discretion.
Federal authority.
And whether ordinary officers could be expected to recognize every kind of government identification.
Some raised genuine questions.
Others seemed interested only in finding a reason to justify what the video showed.
Then an edited clip appeared online.
It focused on the moment I warned Devlin that he was making a catastrophic mistake.
Without the earlier context, the sentence sounded like a powerful official threatening an officer because she expected special treatment.
The clip spread rapidly.
A television host asked whether I believed I was above local law.
Another suggested the incident had become a convenient excuse for federal agencies to intimidate county police.
I wanted to respond immediately.
My communications team advised restraint while the investigations continued.
I understood the reasoning.
But remaining silent was difficult when people were presenting a distorted version of the encounter.