When former Daily Report publisher and editor-in-chief Richard Gard first called me about a job in January 2000, I had just finished interviewing the family of an 8-year-old murder victim for an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

The story had broken my heart. So I was more than ready for the change he offered—a new job that would allow me to step back from the immediacy of the tragedies I covered as a police reporter while still allowing me the opportunity to do something I loved—write and report about the law.