Veterans' advocate renews calls for special court in Yolo County

Veterans' advocate renews calls for special court in Yolo County
Daily Democrat
By DON FRANCES
Created:06/23/2013

It was a California case that led Duncan MacVicar to take up the cause of creating special criminal courts for military veterans.

In 2006, MacVicar took an interest in the case of Sargent Binkley, on trial for using an unloaded gun to rob a pharmacy in Mountain View. Although of different generations, both men are West Point graduates and Army veterans, and both have suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Binkley, who was robbing the pharmacy for its pain pills, also had a painkiller addiction. He faced a mandatory sentence of 12 years in prison if convicted.

Binkley was convicted but avoided jail time due to the jury finding him legally insane at the time of the crime. He received mental health treatment instead.

The ruling "was like winning the lottery," MacVicar said in an interview with The Democrat. Too often, he said, men and women of the Armed Forces come home from service overseas with damaged bodies and minds - and wind up on the wrong side of the law as a result.

Newly inspired, MacVicar co-founded a nonprofit, California Veterans Legal Task Force, and began working on establishing special courts that provide the justice many believe veterans deserve. His work puts him in contact with judges and court administrators in counties around California, including in Yolo.

Although similar efforts had been underway already, "For me, personally, it was absolutely because of Sargent Binkley that I got into this," MacVicar said.
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