Coming Together to Fight for a Troubled Veteran

Coming Together to Fight for a Troubled Veteran

By ERICA GOODE
Published: July 17, 2011

OKEMOS, Mich. — When the standoff began on a humid August night, it seemed destined to become one more case of a returned soldier pulled down by a war he could not leave behind.

Staff Sgt. Brad Eifert circled through the woods behind his house here, holding a .45-caliber pistol. The police were out there somewhere and, one way or the other, he was ready to die.

He raised the gun to his head and then lowered it. Then he fired nine rounds.

“They’re going to take me down, they’re going to finish me off, so,” he remembers thinking, “finish me off.”

Leaving his weapon, he ran into the driveway, shouting, “Shoot me! Shoot me! Shoot me!” The police officers subdued him with a Taser and arrested him. A few hours later, he sat in a cell at the Ingham County Jail, charged with five counts of assault with intent to murder the officers, each carrying a potential life sentence.

In daring the police to kill him, Mr. Eifert, who had served in Iraq and was working as an Army recruiter, joined an increasing number of deployed veterans who, after returning home, plunge into a downward spiral, propelled by post-traumatic stress disorder or other emotional problems.

Their descent is chronicled in suicide attempts or destructive actions that bring them into conflict with the law — drunken driving, bar fights, domestic violence and, in extreme instances, armed confrontations with the police of the kind that are known as “suicide by cop.”

Such stories often end in death or prison, the veteran in either case lost to the abyss.

But something different happened in Mr. Eifert’s case. Headed for disaster, he was spared through a novel court program and an unusual coming together of a group of individuals — including a compassionate judge, a flexible prosecutor, a tenacious lawyer and an amenable police officer — who made exceptions and negotiated compromises to help him.

Brad Eifert was in Iraq during two of the war's most violent years. When he returned home, he knew that something was wrong.

Sitting at his kitchen table in East Lansing the next morning, Judge David L. Jordon of Ingham County District Court read an article about the standoff in Okemos and was immediately interested in the case.

“I thought, boy, that sounds like an attempted suicide by cop and it sounds like a veteran who just gave up and wanted to be done with things,” he said.

Local blogs covering the standoff were tapping mixed reactions.

“I hope they lock him up for the rest of his life,” one commenter wrote, shortly after Mr. Eifert’s arraignment.

“Thank you for your service Sergeant Eifert,” another wrote. “I hope you get the help you need, and can return to Okemos a healthy man.”

The son of a World War II pilot, Judge Jordon is passionate about veterans’ issues, an ardent fan of “Achilles in Vietnam,” Jonathan Shay’s book on combat trauma. After hearing about the veteran’s court in Buffalo, he started a similar one in East Lansing. The court, which meets twice a month, not only gets veterans into treatment, it also provides them a mentor who is also a military veteran. The veterans have a chance to avoid jail by meeting a set of rigorous criteria.

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Coming Together to Fight for a Troubled Veteran

This is a really great article by Erica Goode because it shows what is possible to help these veterans,

Mr. Eifert, 36, was fortunate that, just months before, his county had become one of 80 jurisdictions around the country that have adopted the veterans court model.

but as more and more come home with the weight of the world on their shoulders and the anguish of their tours in their souls, there will be veterans with no help ending up in jail or in a coffin.

It didn't end well for Matthew Speese

The death of Mr. Speese offers another lesson: the need to provide good psychological care to military veterans. The 47-year-old Mr. Speese, a Marine, served in the Gulf War and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He had suicidal tendencies. In fact, a suicide threat led police to Mr. Speese’s home near Howard City after he called a Veterans Crisis Line.

Zachary Hershley
Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Veteran Suffering From PTSD Faces Jail Time for 911 Call
Rob Low, edited by Meagan Kelleher
9:46 PM CST, November 8, 2010
"He didn't commit a crime," Elizabeth Hershley said. "You go to jail when you commit a crime, he called for help."

PLATTE CITY, MO - What an Air Force veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder calls a cry for help, Platte County prosecutors call a crime and want the Iraq war veteran to serve a year in jail for causing a stand-off with police.

Zachary Hershley says he suffered a flashback episode caused by post-traumatic stress disorder on April 23, 2010. Hershley admits he was drunk when he dialed 911 at 2 a.m., telling a dispatcher, "I'm the guy with the gun...I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because I killed a f----ing bunch of god d--n kids."

Hershley was armed with a gun while he was on the phone with dispatchers. At times, during the 911 call he implies he needs his gun to protect himself from enemy forces in Iraq, telling a Swat Team negotiator, "I'm going to kill somebody that tries to kill me."

When the negotiator asked Hershley why somebody would want to kill him, Hershley responded "cause they're f---ing after my ass because I killed their cousins."

Hershley's wife Elizabeth also called 911 that night. Elizabeth told dispatchers that her husband thought his father was an Iraqi enemy soldier.

"Hi, my husband just called in there," she can be heard on the tapes. "My husband, he's got PTSD and he's kind of on a rampage, he doesn't, he thinks he's in Iraq right now."

She can be heard on the 911 tapes telling her husband, "Zac it's me, it's Liz. You need to go to the hospital. Yes, you do!"

Hershley's father Roy said his own son didn't recognize him that night. Hershley eventually gave up that night and was taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. Hershley says he doesn't remember calling 911, but after hearing the tapes, he says it was clearly a psychotic flashback.

"I know I'm slipping and that was basically my last cry out for help," he said.

Jason ArsenaultAnother Iraq Veteran with PTSD killed by police
Man shot after police pursuit identified
Army veteran from Newton killed
Shots were fired Monday night after a vehicle chase which ended outside the Hooters in Dothan.

By MATT ELOFSON
Published: June 14, 2011

Erin Hughes remembers Jason Arsenault as a sweet mannered young man who served his country onboard a Blackhawk helicopter with her husband.

Arsenault, 30, of Newton, died late Monday night after he was shot multiple times by police at the end of a vehicle pursuit on Ross Clark Circle. Deputy Houston County Coroner Ben Earnest said Arsenault died around 10:30 p.m. at Southeast Alabama Medical after he suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso area of his body.

Earnest said Arsenault wore his Army dress uniform, which included several ribbons on it, at the time of his death. According to his obituary, Arsenault served two tours in Iraq until he medically retired in 2008.

Erin Hughes said Arsenault served as a crew chief on a Blackhawk helicopter while in Iraq with her husband, Henry Hughes. She said he earned three medals for his service in the Army in the Middle East, but that he also showed symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

When these veterans don't get the help they need before they are discharged, we will see many more veterans facing off with law enforcement. There is too much of a lag time between discharge and an approved VA claim. What happens to them while they are in the abyss of the two systems?

In the military, they don't have to worry about where they will live or if their families will have a roof over their heads. They don't have to worry about clothing or food. They also have their peers around them, understanding them and helping to ease the pain only they understand.

Back home, discharged from the lives they had, they are left to fill all of their own needs but too often without any income to do it since if PTSD is severe enough, they can't hold a job even if they could find one with this economy.

None of this is exclusive to this generation of veterans. Vietnam veterans came home with the same problems but there was no compassion for them and even less understanding. Even now they end up facing off with law enforcement.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Vietnam vet in standoff had stopped taking meds
Before we moved to Florida, we made two trips to visit Disney. In 1999, my husband was acting like a kid again, enjoying the rides and really excited by the attractions. The following year, a return trip was just the opposite. He complained most of the time we were at the parks about the heat, the crowds and didn't want to go on some of the rides he really enjoyed just the year before. I was very worried about him, wondering why he was acting the way he did and getting very aggravated that he would not just stay in the hotel room instead of making us miserable by his whining at the parks.

When we got back to Massachusetts, I made him go to the VA to find out what was going on. When we got there, he told the triage nurse that he stopped taking one of his medications. He said he was afraid to tell me because I would get mad at him. Turned out he never stopped to think that he was risking his life and making the people around him angry anyway. That was the last time he stopped taking his medication.

When people on medication feel better there is a tendency to stop taking them. After all, instead of thinking they are stable because of them, it's more hopeful for them to think they are cured. This is what can happen when they decide to become their own doctor and their worst enemy.

Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009

Vietnam vet in standoff had stopped taking meds
By MITCH MITCHELL and BILL MILLER
Keller and North Richland Hills SWAT officers rushed through a back door and tackled a troubled Vietnam veteran in Watauga on Thursday night after an armed standoff that lasted more than nine hours.

Ronnie Paul Crowder, 57, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, stunned relatives said. He faces two charges of attempted capital murder for shooting at two officers who arrived at his house in the 5900 block of Robin Drive about 11:15 a.m., Watauga police Chief Randy Benjamin said.

About 8:45 p.m., he said, officers shot at least six rounds of a chemical agent before entering the house and tackling Crowder.

The man was combative during and after the arrest and had to be strapped down for the ambulance ride, Benjamin said.

During the long, hot afternoon, homes were evacuated on Robin Drive and Kary Lynn Street South, a few blocks from Whitley Road Elementary School. As people arrived home from work, they were directed to a nearby public library to wait.

Relatives said Crowder had "not taken his medicine in six days. He’s not in his right mind." He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Marines and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as numerous physical ailments.

This is not an old story since his trial is coming up, he still sits in jail fighting cancer and PTSD.

If there is anyone left in this country not understanding the need for a national court system for veterans by now, they never will.