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Second chance for heros

Montmorency Veterans Court helps vets get, stay sober

News Photo by Julie Riddle Santiago “Jimmy” Becerra celebrates his graduation from Veterans Court with Montmorency County Judge Benjamin Bolser on Wednesday.

ATLANTA — Sometimes, a second chance makes all the difference.

This August marks three years since Judge Benjamin Bolser introduced the first participants in Montmorency County’s Veterans Court. In the intervening years, the program has helped 23 military veterans to get clean, fight their demons, and maybe catch a break in court.

Veterans Court, similar to Drug Court in Alpena County, is a jail diversion program available to vets who have gotten into the court system for a range of crimes, from driving under the influence to assault. Bolser and a team of attorneys, court employees, law enforcement leaders, and health and county Veterans Affairs representatives determine a defendant’s eligibility for the program and supervise their progress through an 18-month probation period.

Although Michigan counties offer 25 veterans courts, the Montmorency County program is the only such option in the Lower Peninsula north of Harrison. Participants from other counties within a 60-mile radius of Montmorency County’ boundary are allowed into the program, which Bolser hopes to see grow in coming years as more defense attorneys become aware it is an option for their clients.

Veterans Court meets every other Wednesday afternoon at the Montmorency County Courthouse.

Muscular 30-somethings and salt-and-pepper 60-year-olds waited their turn Wednesday, one by one updating the court on their jobs, their family, their golf game. Some were commended for signing up for an anger management class or for performing community service. The team offered advice to help participants: Stay involved. Don’t isolate yourself. Be honest.

Not every participant makes it through the program. Bolser and the team terminated a participant Wednesday, reminding the participant of the multiple opportunities he’d been given to adhere to the guidelines of probation.

“This program is about accountability,” Bolser told the man, formally dismissing him and finding him in contempt of court after missed sobriety tests and court appearances.

Participants must complete 18 months of probation, during which they appear in court several times a month, in addition to frequent drug or alcohol testing, counseling, and regular communication with an assigned mentor.

All the mentors in the program are veterans themselves, Bolser said, men who have been in the shoes of those in the program and who know what it is to struggle as a result of being a soldier in combat.

Most, if not all, of the men in the program — so far, it has only been men, Bolser reported, but female veterans are welcome, as well — got into the court system because of underlying post-traumatic stress generated by their military service.

“Most of these are combat veterans. They were taught to kill, kill, kill,” explained Annette Porter, probation officer for the court.

One of the veterans in the courtroom on Wednesday, standing before the judge and support team, spoke of his years fighting in faraway places, doing the duty of a soldier until he “just couldn’t pull the trigger anymore.”

Veterans return from deployment with varying degrees of ability to handle the trauma of combat, Bolser said. Some, perhaps with counseling, are able to merge back into society successfully. Many, though, struggle with the effects for years, even decades, afterward, with unexpected reactions and fears triggered by lights, sounds, even an airplane flying overhead.

Veterans Court is limited to vets whose crime was connected to substance abuse or mental health issues. A requirement of the court is that participants get sober and stay sober.

Nearly all of the participants arrive as alcoholics, Porter said.

“They’re drinking so much to cover up the symptoms” of post-traumatic stress, Porter explained. “They’re self-medicating.”

She described how, by the end of the 18 months, participants physically change, looking healthier and more in touch with the world around them.

Upon graduation, participants may receive a reduced charge or less jail time for the crime that brought them to the program, in recognition of the work they have done to stay sober and seek emotional help. Not all do, though. The treatment court has worked with several participants who joined the program voluntarily, after they were sentenced, because they learned of the help it offers.

“They come saying, ‘I just want the help,'” Bolser said.

Bolser calls Veterans Court his favorite part of the month. Not a veteran himself, he feels the court is a way to help vets who have gotten on the wrong side of the law to become productive members of society again.

“It’s a way to give back to our veterans who need help who have have saved and protected our democracy,” he said.

Santiago Becarra, known as Jimmy to his fellow Veterans Court members, enjoyed a piece of pistachio cake at the Atlanta courthouse on Wednesday in celebration of his successful completion. A 12-year veteran with multiple deployments to combat zones overseas, he thanked the team for giving him the chance to clear away his mental cloudiness enough to see — and want — a life outside of substance abuse.

“I could have thought, ‘I’m a hero now, now I can enjoy myself getting drunk,'” the ex-soldier told the courtroom before Bolser handed him his certificate of completion. “But I’d rather enjoy myself with my mind.

“It’s pretty sharp,” he added, drawing a laugh.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

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