Court aims to give active-duty troops, vets a 2nd chance

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — After a high-speed back-and-forth with a driver he says nearly ran him off the road, Army Lt. Andrew Myatt was arrested by police in Illinois and accused of waving a pistol.

But the 41-year-old soldier is getting help through a fledgling court program specifically for current or former members of the military who run afoul of the law.

The veterans court, one of several popping up across the country, is aimed at getting nonviolent soldiers with otherwise clean records into treatment, sparing them a criminal conviction. Treatment can include psychological counseling or drug and alcohol rehab.

“I’ve been awed in that they take into account that you volunteered for your country and that it stands for something,” said Myatt, with roughly 23 years of service in the Army and, lately, the National Guard. “The judge and the others are saying our own brothers are lost in the system and we can help. This is our own taking care of our own.”

The court in Illinois — like others in New York, Tulsa, Okla., and other spots — is patterned on the nation’s drug courts, which are meant to keep low-level drug offenders out of overcrowded prisons. Just two months old, the Illinois veterans court is staffed by a judge, public defender and prosecutor who all served in the military.

Veterans and those on active duty are steered toward the court. It is generally offered to offenders whose crimes, mostly misdemeanors, are believed to be related somehow to their military service.

Organizers of veterans courts say the need for them is real and growing, given the thousands of combat veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan who may be struggling to readjust to civilian life.

The first veterans court began in Buffalo, N.Y., in January 2008. Authorities said it is too early to tell whether the courts reduce the rate at which defendants break the law again, but Buffalo has seen encouraging signs. More than 90 percent of the veterans’ treatment appointments have been kept there, dwarfing the average rate of 35 percent at general treatment clinics, officials said.

Offenders who toe the line and follow the treatment regimen can see their charges reduced or dropped. Those who mess up can be sent to jail.

“This provides them an opportunity to get their life back together,” Welch said. “It’s not a fluff court. If they screw up, the judge has no hesitancy to slap the cuffs on them and put them in jail.”

Still, veterans courts have their critics.

J. Steven Beckett, director of trial advocacy at the University of Illinois’ law school, said he has no legal objection to the idea, noting that judges “can do all sorts of things.” But he questioned the need to create a system for just one group.

The man in charge of the Illinois program is Charles Romani Jr., a 26-year Madison County judge and an Army sergeant during the Vietnam War. The prosecutor is a former Marine corporal, the public defender a former Navy lieutenant.