Veterans Treatment Court seeks to help those who served

The Lorain County Veterans Treatment Court seeks to get those who’ve served in the armed forces and run afoul of the criminal justice system back on their feet, according to presiding Judge James T. Walther.

Since 2014, the court has been connecting the veterans to alcohol and drug addiction services provided by the U.S. Department if Veteran Affairs and The LCADA Way, and close monitoring, Walther said.

The judge said he was inspired to bring a veterans court to Lorain County in 2012 after reading an article by former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Eveline Lundberg Stratton and attending a seminar by Judge Robert T. Russell, who is credited with creating the first veterans’ court in Buffalo, N.Y.

“Within the week (after hearing Russell speak), I had met with various persons from the Supreme Court and the Common Pleas General Division about starting a veterans’ treatment court,” Walther said.

By early 2013, probation officer Chuck Schaffer, who is an Iraq War veteran, was tasked by the county probation department to help Walther write all the programs that the court would use.

“We decided that in Lorain County, instead of letting the veterans waste away behind bars, we were going to start the veterans’

treatment court and allow them to connect with services that they’ve earned and that they deserve right in the community,” Walther said.

It was another year before the court was able to undertake its first two cases. One of the two veterans is set to graduate the program at the March 6 graduation ceremony.

Walther said it took the vet a long time to get through the program because he had run into a bunch of difficulties.

Schaffer said without any significant missteps, the program can be completed in about 15 months. During that time, veterans must go to court on the first and third Mondays of each month, weekly meetings with Schaffer and weekly drug and alcohol testing.

Walther said the court offers structure, accountability, treatment and mentoring to its participants.

Each veteran who enters the program is assigned a mentor who also is a veteran, he said.

“There’s a lot of pieces and parts to what we do,” Walther said. “One of the most important pieces is our connection with the Veterans Administration.”

Walther said he wrote to the Veterans Administration requesting it hires a third veteran justice outreach coordinator, or VJO, to be assigned to the court.

An outreach coordinator acts as a liaison between veterans who are having legal trouble and the Veterans Administration.

Walther said there is a need for courts like this because of the high number of veterans who return from their time in the service suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or are unable to cope with rejoining the community.

The court’s veteran-specific program is designed to make the participants successful, he said.

“(Veterans) are different,” the judge said. “They have their own unique code, they have their own belief system and they have their own problems.

“Because of that they are treated differently in the veterans treatment court.”

The court has had successes, but one of their participants died of a drug overdose in August, Walther said.

“I really do believe that what we’re doing down there is a life or death matter,” he said.