POST FALLS, Idaho — A pound of meth, one thousand fentanyl pills and a sawed off shotgun.
This is what Kootenai County deputies said they found in the car 32-year-old Amber Letchworth was driving. She and her husband were pulled over in Post Falls on January 2 and are now facing felony charges.
After receiving a viewer tip, KREM 2 dug through Letchworth's past and discovered Letchworth is a former law student at Gonzaga University and the co-founder of Revive Center for Returning Citizens.
Kurtis Robinson, the executive director of Revive, said the organization connects previously incarcerated people to housing, employment and counseling. Robinson said they have helped a lot of people move past criminal convictions.
"Thousands, yes," Robinson said.
The organization was born several years ago. Letchworth served as a secretary.
"She was very dedicated, very driven, very heavily engaged and then over time that changed," Robinson said.
Robinson wouldn't go into details, but said Revive parted ways with Letchworth in October 2022.
"It is our responsibility organizationally and humanely to make sure that if there are some things that are some of those red and yellow flag indicators, that we address it," Robinson said. "And so, we absolutely did that with Amber and made sure that there were copious amounts of invitations to go ahead and shift trajectories."
In her biography from 2020, Letchworth said she's impacted by generational poverty and comes from a family that battles mental health and drug abuse. Robinson said many people who find themselves in the criminal justice system suffer trauma stretching back to their childhood.
"Just because you have trauma is not a pass for behavior, yet it is a reality," Robinson said.
Robinson said revival is a process, not an event. He many never fully understand why Letchworth ended up where she is now.
"When we try to answer that question, the real person who is going to be able to talk about that is going to be Amber," Robinson said.
KREM 2 tried to get answers from Letchworth and give her an opportunity to explain what happened, but she declined a jailhouse interview request. She is being held at Kootenai County Jail with bond set at $200,000.
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