Judgment on vets court depends on repeat offenses
One way to measure if the 4th Judicial District’s new veterans trauma court is working will be to see what impact it has on the number of repeat offenses, organizers of the effort said during a kick-off event on Thursday.
“Not only is it the right thing to do by these young people, but also the goal is to reduce the rate of recidivism,” said Judge Ronald Crowder, a retired major general with the Army National Guard who is overseeing the new court docket.
The court, which started in August, is the first of its kind in Colorado. The pilot project, along with a similar court being developed in Denver, has gotten a state grant of $2 million over the next five years, most of which is earmarked for treatment.
The programs are modeled after similar efforts in Buffalo, N.Y; Orange County, Calif., and Tulsa, Okla. Crowder said those programs have reported a drop in the number of repeat offenses.
The El Paso County program is starting out small. It will consist of a docket of about 50 to 75 combat veterans at any one time with the emphasis on treatment rather than incarceration. The crimes involved will be misdemeanor and non-violent offenses.
Deputy Public Defender Sheilagh McAteer said she first began to realize the need for such a court when she defended her first soldier about three years ago.
He had seen his best friend blown away and came back traumatized “when the government dropped him off on the streets of Colorado Springs,” she said.
She was able to get him probation, but there were no mental health services available for him. He racked up three felonies in six months and is now serving a 12-year-prison sentence for menacing. A soldier like that could have benefitted from the program and avoided those more serious charges, she said.
District Attorney Dan May said he’s often asked if the new court means that prosecutors will be more lenient to military defendants. His answer is no.
“This is actually going to be tougher to get through than if we just put them on probation,” May said.
If the program works, it could spread elsewhere in the state. Calhan Republican Rep. Marsha Looper’s HB1104 would allow statewide creation of special veterans’ courts. It is stalled in the House Judiciary Committee because lawmakers have questioned whether other places in Colorado need special courts for veterans.
Crowder said the main challenge of the new court so far is the time involved. His courtroom staff is absorbing the workload along with other cases. But the veteran’s court docket takes longer, he said. However, Crowder said he enjoys presiding over these cases, in part, because of the level of discussion that goes into each defendant.
“I’m much better informed when they appear in front of me,” he said. “It is more time intensive, but we all think it’s worth it.”
For more court coverage, go to the Sidebar blog at Gazette.com
