“Veterans’ Treatment Court in Catawba County will restore health to veterans, their families..."

Treatment court for military veterans is on the horizon in Catawba County

Observer News Enterprise
December 20, 2019

NEWTON, NC
A treatment court for military veterans is on the horizon in Catawba County.

The new treatment court will begin in January 2021 and provide assistance to veterans who have contact with the court system in Catawba County when a 10th judge is added for the judicial district.

Tammy West, a legal assistant with the 36th Prosecutorial District Attorney’s Office in Catawba County, has been among those spearheading the effort to bring a treatment court for veterans to the county.

“Veterans have done so much for us as a nation,” West said. “We have no idea what they go through for us. What they see and do can be very bad, but they do it because they believe in a greater cause. This is a small way we can give back to them in their time of need.”

West and District Attorney Scott Reilly both had sons who served in the military, so they know first-hand some of the issues veterans deal with on a daily basis.

“We have a heart for veterans. We want to give back because we know what their (veterans’) sacrifice causes,” West said.

Reilly added, “We depend on our brave men and women to answer the call to defend our freedom. We must also be there to support them by providing resources to address their needs and issues by doing our best to get them well again. This Veterans’ Treatment Court is designed to meet the particular needs of veterans involved in the criminal justice system.”

Dennis Bennett, a retired U.S. Army veteran, has been an advocate of the treatment court to assist veterans for several years. He is glad to see that a vision has become a reality.

“Veterans’ Treatment Court in Catawba County will restore health to veterans, their families, work places and the community as a whole. It will save lives, period,” Bennett said. “I’m truly grateful for the vision of justice that District Attorney Scott Reilly brings to our community. He is dedicated to the wellness of our community as a DA in promoting justice and welfare."
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Civilians punished for pretending to be veterans...in Veteran's Court

2 men falsely claimed military service to get their cases moved to a veterans court

Associated Press 
August 25, 2019

Before they can be eligible for parole, Pinski ordered both men to hand write the names of all 6,756 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; write out the obituaries of the 40 Montanans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and send hand-written letters of apology to several veterans groups identifying themselves as having lied about military service to receive help and possibly a lesser sentence through a veterans court.

The first Veterans Treatment Court (VTC) was started in 2008 in Buffalo, N.Y. There are 220 operational VTCs in the United States with approximately 11,000 veterans currently participating. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Two Montana men who were sentenced to prison for violating the terms of the probation in separate crimes won’t be eligible for parole until they complete a writing assignment given because they falsely claimed to have served in the military to have their cases moved to a veterans court. Cascade County District Judge Greg Pinski sentenced Ryan Patrick Morris, 28, and Troy Allan Nelson, 33, on Friday. Morris got 10 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation for felony burglary, while Nelson got five years on a drug possession conviction. Pinski suspended three years of each defendant’s sentence. read more here

Disabled veteran survived combat...attempted suicide and struggles to stay alive

Past struggles emerging about disabled veteran charged in NT bomb scare

WBFO News
By MARIAN HETHERLY
JUN 27, 2019

"After giving up on life he became suicidal and prayed that God would just kill him like Jesus Christ. He miraculously got extremely motivated from peer to peer mentoring without remembering the suicide actions for 6 months, but the same day he retired his brother-in-law fell off a cliff and died. Staff Sergeant Payne felt guilty he endured and survived all these hardships."

We are learning more about a disabled veteran who prompted a bomb scare at North Tonawanda City Hall earlier this week.

North Tonawanda Police say Timothy Payne, 36, remains in custody and is scheduled for a hearing in NT City Court Friday morning for criminal possession of a weapon. He also was evaluated by medical personnel.

Payne was arrested Tuesday afternoon after police found a loaded pistol, two military-style rifles and 400 rounds of ammunition in his van. Bomb Squad agents were also called in after another item found appeared to be explosive. Police now say it was a hitch lock, which "could be construed as a pipe bomb."

In fact, they say further investigation has found that Payne appears to be living out of his van since traveling to New York from North Carolina looking for work. He has ties to NT and met with the mayor to express his distress about not being able to find work, but police say Payne has made no threats to anyone.
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Disabled, Incarcerated Veterans Moving Forward

San Diego County, City Take Action To Help Disabled, Incarcerated Vets

By City News Service
June 5, 2019

In 2013, the county Sheriff's Department and San Diego Veterans Administration started the Veterans Moving Forward program for male veterans in the Vista jail.

An American flag mural fills an entire exterior wall of bar formerly known as El Uno in City Heights near University Avenue, Nov. 10, 2016.

PHOTO BY NICHOLAS MCVICKER

On Tuesday, the city of San Diego announced a plan to help disabled veterans while the county took a step toward strengthening an outreach program for veterans being held in the Vista Detention Facility.

On a 4-0 vote — Greg Cox was absent — the county Board of Supervisors directed Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer to develop a plan for participants in the Veterans Moving Forward program at the Vista Detention Facility, including options for future housing.

Robbins-Meyer will also find additional vocational training space in the jail, and work with community partners to develop job training and certification opportunities for veterans after they are released. Robbins-Meyer will have up to three months to present the board with a plan.

Supervisor Kristin Gaspar — who along with Jim Desmond recommended the proposal — said the county is home to one of the largest population of veterans in the United States and "adjusting to civilian life is very challenging," especially for those who find themselves in jail.

According to the county, there has been a significant increase in the number of veterans booked into regional jails over the past three years. In 2018, there were 637 veterans booked into a San Diego County jail, with an average of three bookings per veteran.
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Oklahoma veteran with PTSD sent to death by suicide?

Krysten Mischelle Gonzalez served country, sent to jail and suicide

This is one of those stories that I missed. I found it today searching for something else. It is a story that needs to be shared because it is yet one more, among a long list, of things we get oh, so wrong.

Jail inmate waited for mental health treatment bed for months before death

The Oklahoman
by SILAS ALLEN
January 13, 2019

Krysten Gonzalez, front, prepares to paint a hallway at the City Rescue Mission in 2014. At the time, Gonzalez was a part of a recovery program at the rescue mission. Gonzalez died Tuesday after being found unresponsive at the Oklahoma County jail. 

[Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman Archives]

Editor's note: If you or anyone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Find more information here.

For nearly three months before she died, Krysten Mischelle Gonzalez sat in an Oklahoma County jail cell while public defenders searched for an inpatient mental health treatment facility that would agree to accept her, the county's chief public defender says.

Gonzalez, 29, was found unresponsive in her cell about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Jail staff performed lifesaving measures before taking her to OU Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m. The state medical examiner's office has not determined a cause of death, but jail officials say Gonzalez hanged herself.

Gonzalez had been jailed since Oct. 11 on a warrant for failure to appear. The case stems from a June 2017 incident in which an officer responding to a shoplifting call found a baggie containing 0.6 grams of meth in Gonzalez's purse.

A U.S. Army veteran, Gonzalez stated in court papers that she had been treated in the past for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. In November 2017, her Oklahoma County case was transferred to mental health court. As a part of that transfer, Gonzalez agreed to make regular appearances in mental health court. If she violated the terms of the agreement, Gonzalez would be subject to an automatic 10-year prison sentence.
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“There is no doubt that my time in the Marion County Veteran’s Treatment Court saved my life

In Ocala, special court for veterans learns more about PTSD

Ocala Star Banner
Joe Callahan
March 5, 2019

“There is no doubt that my time in the Marion County Veteran’s Treatment Court saved my life,” White said on Tuesday after he listened to a PTSD seminar organized by Marion County Veteran’s Treatment Court.

Sgt. Jason White, an Ocala native, had just retired from the U.S. Marine Corp in 2014 after serving 10 years and two tours in Iraq.

White, 33, who was in the Florida foster care system as a child, arrived home to his wife of five years and his 5-year-old daughter, both of whom were strangers due to his service, White shared on Tuesday.

White has been battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ever since he returned home.

When he returned home, he had many tell-tale stressors. Besides childhood trauma from his time in foster care, he stressed about being a husband to a wife he had never lived with and a father to a child he barely knew.

Those struggles led him down a dark road, he noted. Erratic behavior and substance abuse led to a divorce, which he said devastated him.

All that changed a couple of years ago. An incident with his ex-wife led him to court on a misdemeanor charge and subsequently into the open arms of officials with the Marion County Veteran’s Treatment Court.

White says treatment court, founded nearly seven years ago, provided the headlights to help steer him off that long, winding dark road.

Today, he has joint custody of his daughter and now helps veterans as a Florida outreach coordinator for the PTSD Foundation of America.
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Marine thanks God he was caught

McCrabb: Why a Marine says being arrested was ‘one of the biggest blessings’ in guiding him to Middletown success

Dayton Daily News
Rick McCrabb
February 17, 2019

He called being arrested “one of the biggest blessings of my life. I’m glad God cut me down that day. God was fed up and he gave me over to the authorities.”

MIDDLETOWN — When Jake Ferguson heard a strange voice yell, “Mr. Ferguson,” he knew he was busted.

“There was a wave of fear,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is how it’s all going to end.’”Ferguson, a Marine recruiter in Bowling Green in 2012, had forged a prescription for painkillers at a Meijer pharmacy, and 15 minutes later, local police charged him with deception to obtain a dangerous drug, a felony.

If convicted, the Middletown native faced a court-martial from the Marines with a possible penalty of up to 18 months in prison, the loss of his military rank and pension and probably his marriage to Nicki.

“I need treatment,” he told the judge. “I need help.”

The judge listened. The charge was suspended, and Ferguson was placed on one-year probation and told to seek therapy through Veterans Affairs.“Very blessed,” he said of his reaction to the judge’s leniency.Since then, Ferguson has received 2½ years of intense therapy — one year in Bowling Green and 18 months with the Wounded Warriors East Battalion in Jacksonville, N.C. — medically retired from the Marines in 2015, “surrendered his life” to Christ, worked as a counselor for more than three years with his wife at a church in North Carolina and recently was named Life Care Pastor at Berachah Church in Middletown.
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If you want to know how to prevent military suicides....send this Marine to talk to them and you'll see change happen!

Treating this has to happen by mind-body and spirit. Leave out the spirit and you have healing that is incomplete. Add in the spirit and you can watch them soar!

Veterans Court Saved Veteran Who Save Child

Man who rescued toddler graduates Veterans Treatment Court

WLOS NBC 10 News
October 26, 2018

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) - A man who was hailed as a hero after rescuing a toddler in a crash celebrated a milestone on Friday.

Gage Hampton, an Afghanistan veteran who rescued a toddler from a wreck in May, graduated from Buncombe County's Veterans Treatment Court. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)

Back in May, Gage Hampton came to the rescue of a toddler who was trapped in a car that had crashed through a store window.

On Friday, he graduated from Buncombe County's Veterans Treatment Court. The Army veteran has overcome PTSD and been sober for nearly three years.

During Friday's ceremony, he was presented with a Quilt of Valor.

"All my support network is here. It's just a real blessing to have this ceremony and to graduate from veterans treatment court," Hampton said. "I got the feeling of redemption, you know, to be in this situation and it's just a blessing, it really is."

Hampton did combat duty in Afghanistan while he was in the Army. He said the experience taught him the meaning of self-sacrifice.
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Justice not blind for veterans needing legal help

Pensacola veterans struggle to pay for legal help in civil court cases, panel says
Pensacola News Journal
Melissa Nelson Gabriel
Aug. 10, 2018

A Tampa veterans crisis line receives more than 10,000 calls a month from veterans needing help, said Dennis Baker, president of the Florida Veterans Foundation. Many of the calls are about suicidal thoughts or addiction issues. A lot of the calls are also from veterans who need help negotiating the legal system, he said.

From child support hearings to eviction notices, many Florida veterans are left to fend for themselves when it comes to complicated legal issues, members of a statewide committee on civil justice heard Friday.

Judges, lawyers and veterans advocates from around the state met in Pensacola to discuss what can be done to ensure veterans have better representation in the civil justice system.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga, chairman of the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice, said the group took its meeting on veterans' issues to Pensacola because of the high number of active-duty military members and retirees in the region.

"Access to civil justice not only impacts the poor, it also affects those of moderate income," he said.

A Tampa veterans crisis line receives more than 10,000 calls a month from veterans needing help, said Dennis Baker, president of the Florida Veterans Foundation. Many of the calls are about suicidal thoughts or addiction issues. A lot of the calls are also from veterans who need help negotiating the legal system, he said.

"A number of callers are telling us they need an attorney. It's everything from landlord/tenant disputes, wills and estates, mortgages and foreclosures, and taxes," he said.
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Veterans getting out of jail with help to have hope

Incarcerated vets get second chance through re-entry program
Times Leader
By Kulsoom Khan - For Times Leader
June 17, 2018

Former Marine Gene Santore had a loving family, a thriving business and “lot of money in the bank.”

He nearly lost all of it three years ago when he got arrested for a drug deal and being involved in a robbery.

Gene Santore, 58, of Clarks Summit is a former Marine. After serving some jail time for a drug-related charge in 2015, he participated in the VA’s Veteran Just Outreach Program and Lackawanna County’s treatment court for incarcerated veterans. He now serves as a mentor for the program. - Kulsoom Khan | Times Leader

The Clarks Summit resident served in the Marine corp and in the reserves for six years. He hurt his shoulder in 1989 and had eight surgeries. Santore’s doctors gave him Percocet and Oxycontin to help him deal with the pain, which eventually turned into a serious addiction and led to heroin use later on.

“I was on a 180 milligrams a day of that and after 24 years, it just doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “You resort to the next best cheaper thing, and that’s heroin.”

After spending six months in jail, Santore began participating in the VA Medical Center’s Veteran Justice Outreach program in 2015. Veterans Affairs started the initiative in 2009 and works in collaboration with Lackawanna County Veterans Treatment Court to help incarcerated veterans and those who have been recently released from prison to transition back into society.

The program helps with assistance in finding jobs, housing and repairing damaged relationships through counseling. There are currently 105 veterans participating in the program, which can last 18 months or longer.

Social workers from the VA and probation officers from Lackawanna County also work with veterans who have issues with drug and alcohol abuse to keep them off of drugs and out of prison.

“What helped me is supervision from my probation officer to my case managers down there,” said Santore while sitting outside the VA Medical Center in Plains Township. “All these people genuinely cared to help me, which I never had happen before.”
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Valor Act abused by some, victims left paying the price

Fixing the Valor Act for Victims 
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 9, 2018

There are many things that get to me. The most obvious one is PTSD in our veterans, especially Vietnam veterans. I got into this work 36 years ago because I fell in love with my Vietnam veteran husband. They have been forgotten about in all the "efforts" everyone seems to be talking about.

There is another topic that gets to me, and that is domestic violence.

I was a victim of domestic violence. As a kid with a Korean War veteran Dad, who was a violent alcoholic until I was 13 and he stopped drinking. For me it was what he was doing to my oldest brother and my Mom and the constant threat of it happening. So, I am a survivor of that. 

I was a victim of my ex-husband, not a veteran, deciding one night, I needed to die. As soon as the police took him away, I was, yet again, a survivor of domestic abuse.

There is a report out of Massachusetts about a Vietnam veteran who is accused of domestic violence. Vietnam service may keep veteran from facing assault charges on the Boston Globe

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Louise Guy hugged her dog Blue. Guy’s ex-boyfriend is accused of assaulting her.

"Accused of slamming his girlfriend’s head into the floor and nearly strangling one of her golden retrievers, Warren R. Broughton faced charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and animal cruelty in a New Bedford courtroom."

There is no excuse for this. While justice should be measured with military service, justice must also factor in the victims.

It looks like Judge McGovern thought it was more important to honor the veteran's service than hold him accountable for what he was charged for doing to his girlfriend.

“Well, thank you for your service to the United States of America,” Judge James McGovern told him.

One more case of politicians writing Bills without really understanding what the hell they are doing.

The Valor Act’s author, state Senator Michael F. Rush, said in a statement in January that he would change the law to prevent such applications.

“Domestic abuse and assault is unacceptable, inexcusable, and intolerable by any individual, especially by a veteran,” Rush said then.

But his bill, which passed the Senate in May, did not end eligibility for those accused of domestic violence. Nor did it provide any way of tracking defendants who had already invoked the Valor Act in court.

The article points out that veterans do not want anyone to receive a "get out of jail free" pass. The Veterans Courts are great at holding veterans accountable. They make sure veterans get the help they need, support from a mentor to get through the program, and if they do not do it, they go to jail.

Too many times we have seen people take advantage of poorly written laws. This is one of those times. Read the rest of the article and see how many have abused this effort to do the right thing for our veterans, and left victims paying for it.

Veterans Court turning lives around...and saving them

Court program helps turn troubled vets’ lives around
Group State
By Bob Montgomery
Staff Writer
Posted May 19, 2018

Marine veteran Jason Moore has seen what war can do to a young soldier, and he’s committed to helping those in trouble with the law turn their lives around.

“You’re taking a guy with a hiccup and giving him a second chance,” he said of Upstate Warrior Solution’s Veterans Treatment Court program, which kicked off last year with a $20,000 grant from the United Way of the Piedmont.

With the victims’ consent, the court program assigns veterans who commit nonviolent offenses to an advocate, or mentor, who pleads on their behalf.

Instead of going to jail, they go through a treatment program and are held accountable along the way. When they finish, up to a year later, they have their charges expunged.

“Veterans who served should never be underserved in our community,” said Heather Witt, vice president of community impact for the United Way.

An estimated 100,000 veterans live in the Upstate. Upstate Warrior Solution also helps run the Greenville court program, which started in 2014.

The pilot program was brought to the 7th Judicial Circuit and led by Deputy Solicitor Derrick Bulsa and Circuit Court Judge Keith Kelly.
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Marine Veteran credits Veterans Court with lifeline

After 3 suicide attempts, Marine veteran turns life around and graduates from veterans court
WDRB News
Fallon Glick
Posted: May 17, 2018

“Two overdoses and a car accident that I tried," Reidinger said. "The overdoses didn't work. I don't know how. They should have ... big time. And then on I-65, I drove into a median."

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A Marine Corps veteran from southern Indiana tried committing suicide three times before finally getting the help he desperately needed.

It was the darkest time in Brian Reidinger's life.

But those times were a stark difference from just years earlier when he proudly served in the United States Marine Corps.

“I fell in love," Reidinger said. "I was good at it. I succeeded in it."

Within a year of joining, he was deployed to combat in Iraq.

“I excelled in it. I was really good at it," he said. "I was good under pressure. I was good at making decisions, I was good at protecting my marines, and they were good at protecting me."

After Reidinger got out of the Marines, he moved back home and felt lost.

“One of the worst things you can tell a Marine, a combat Marine, is that you're not the same," he said. "Because we know we're not the same. It sucks being reminded of it, and I was just depressed."

He developed a drinking problem that turned into an opioid pill problem, which later turned into a heroin problem.

“It ruined my life," he said. "It took over everything."

Reidinger was in and out of jail. But then he finally accepted help through Veteran's Treatment Court of Southern Indiana.

“Which was one of the best things to ever happen to me," he said. "If it wasn't for them, I'd be dead today."
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Veterans Court gives PTSD veterans a fighting chance

Torres: Veteran mentors continue to serve in court with pride
Florida Today
John A Terres
February 12 2018

You hear the cliches in just about every war movie ever made about this special band of brothers or no man left behind.

Circuit Judge Judith Atkin honors the veteran mentors in Veterans Court.

(Photo: Courtesy 18th Judicial Circuit)

You may never hear "never stop serving" on the big screen but its sentiment is just as important to the health and well-being of those who have served our country as evidenced in Brevard County's Veterans Treatment Court.

Just ask someone like Melbourne native and former Marine Theodore Doukas, who returned from a couple of tours in Iraq with a back injury that led to a painkiller addiction. Paired up with veteran mentor Harry "Skip" Taylor, Doukas is getting the help he needs and will soon graduate from the program.

"He's shown me the path," Doukas said about Taylor. "He's really stayed on me about going to the V.A. Some things in this program have really changed my life."
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80% Veterans Complete Veterans Court Succeed

A few things to notice when you watch the video on the link. They start the session with the Pledge of Allegiance. The other is that the entire courtroom is there supporting the veteran who just graduated from the program...including his family!

Top that off with the veteran wants to turn around and help other veterans succeed as well!


Veterans court gives second chance to some struggling vets
WESH 2 News
Greg Fox
December 29, 2017

Judge Bryan Feigenbaum said more than 80 percent of those who graduate do not repeat their crimes.

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla.
WESH 2 News has details on a court program that helps veterans, instead of sending them to jail.

WESH 2's Greg Fox met a combat veteran who got a second chance after an armed standoff with police.

The man has been rehabilitated and is hoping to help others.

Kevin Hamilton, like others eligible for the pretrial diversion program, is a veteran with an honorable discharge. He was an Army sergeant and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hamilton suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and held his family hostage and threatened his own life in an armed standoff in Ormond Beach in 2015 that ended peacefully.

Veterans court gave Hamilton a second chance: counseling, probation and mentoring, or face prison time.
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Veterans Court Got PTSD Veteran Help He Needed

Aurora man says new vet court connected him ‘with the right people’

Chicago Sun Times

Jon Seidel

December 10, 2017

One of the many times Juan Morales fought in Afghanistan, he carried a wounded soldier to safety amid an enemy ambush.

Juan Morales, left, a graduate from the Veterans Treatment Court, receives a certificate from Joe Butler of the John Marshall Law School Veterans Legal Support Center and Clinic. | Provided photo

“It was a pretty big attack,” the 33-year-old Aurora man said. But it was just one of many. He said he found himself in battle nearly every day for four months while a member of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Morales became a team leader before returning home with the “knee of a 70-year-old” and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Then his troubles were nearly compounded when, while receiving treatment at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital, he said he was caught on the grounds of the federal facility last spring with a knife he forgot to leave at home.

That oversight helped land him in front of a federal judge — a daunting moment for anyone. But months later, Morales became one of the first six graduates of the Northern District of Illinois’ Veterans Treatment Court, which aims to help veterans charged with federal misdemeanors get the help they need.

“They got me in touch with the right people,” Morales said.

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Jacksonville Veteran Shot on Wonderwood Bridge

Police officer shoots, injures armed veteran after rampage

Friday's police-involved shooting is 9th this year in Jacksonville

News4JAX

Ethan Calloway

Corley Peel

Allyson Henning

Court records show Smith was arrested on Sept. 19 on two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of domestic battery. On Oct. 17, he was referred to a pretrial intervention program for military veterans. He was out on bond Friday but was due to be back in court later this month. 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officer shot and injured an armed veteran who has had previous run-ins with law enforcement, after a crash Friday afternoon on the Wonderwood Bridge in the Mayport area, authorities said.

Steven Smith, 32, is expected to survive after he was shot twice by Officer A. Will, Assistant Chief Scott Dingee announced at a Friday evening news briefing. 

At 4:41 p.m., two 911 calls came in about hit-and-run incidents on Nesting Eagles Way, where residents said a man was driving recklessly -- hitting mailboxes, poles and trees, Dingee said.

Two minutes later, Dingee said, a third 911 caller reported a mentally ill man who was posing a threat to the caller's relative on nearby Blue Eagle Way East near Girvin Road in East Arlington.

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Veterans Court, Support and Encouragement

13 vets graduate from Indy Veterans Court

FOX 59

Randy Spieth

October 27, 2017

“I know I wouldn’t be here today if veterans court didn’t exist," Mills said while holding back tears. "I probably would be in jail, but they gave me hope.”

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.  - A relatively new program recognized the work of 13 veterans Friday who have suffered because of their time in the military.

Veterans court allows service men and women to enroll in treatment, allowing them to stay out of jail and possibly see their criminal charges dropped.

Vets in the program were recognized for graduating with an hour-long ceremony at the Indiana World War Memorial auditorium.

The Indianapolis Veterans Court (IVC) celebrated its second anniversary of serving men and women. Including Friday's ceremony, 21 veterans have graduated from IVC.

“Our program is a treatment-oriented court," said Marion County Superior Court Judge David Certo, who also runs the IVC. "You go to treatment, the court helps support you and encourage you, and hold you accountable in doing that because you get better outcomes when you go consistently to treatment.”

The program is completed by veterans in phases, and can take 12 to 18 months overall. 
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California PTSD Veteran Bill Gives Veterans a Chance Instead of Jail

Local officials applaud Gov. Brown's signing of PTSD bill for veterans

Eyewitness News 
by Lexi Wilson 
Wednesday, August 9th 2017

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill that gives veterans a chance to receive treatment instead of jail time when charged with a misdemeanor DUI.

It is called the Pre-Trail Diversion Program.

The court will look at the misdemeanors as a mental health issue rather than a criminal case.

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Veteran Marine-Ex-Police Officer Going Through Veterans Court

Former officer, ex-Marine pleads guilty to domestic violence 
by Associated Press 
June 21st 2017

XXXXXXX pleaded guilty June 12 to aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, as he was admitted into Veteran's Court in Provo.

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A former police officer and ex-Marine has pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges and was admitted to a specialty treatment program for veterans. 

Deseret News reports the prosecutor says the resolution will prevent 30-year-old former West Jordan Police officer XXXXXXXX from ever again wearing a uniform and will ensure he gets help for his post-traumatic stress disorder. read more here