Our Military Community

01:42 hello everyone Jerry Tabit with you with
01:44 another edition of our military
01:45 Community a real interesting topic today
01:47 that a lot of people haven't heard about
01:50 including yours truly and I've been
01:51 around the area for quite a while it's
01:53 what we call veterans court and it's run
01:56 uh through the courthouse State's
01:57 Attorney's office and there's so many
01:58 interesting things going on with this
01:00 and hopefully we can get some guidance
01:02 out to people today and joining me this
01:04 morning to talk about that is Mr Zach
01:06 van djk who is an assistant States
01:08 Attorney here uh with the Florida States
01:10 attorney's office member of the Florida
01:12 bar Zach thanks for coming in
01:14 today you uh you've got a with this
01:18 veterans court a lot of good information
01:20 but but you kind of got a little
01:22 additional stuff because you're a
01:23 military veteran yourself tell us about
01:25 that well I tried to college After High
01:28 School and I ended up in the Army
02:31 because College didn't fit it fit the
02:33 second time I tried it so I had to grow
02:36 up a little bit um and I served four
02:38 years in the 82 Airborne uh back in N
02:42 enlisted in
02:44 1988 and uh ended up going to the Panama
02:48 Invasion and ended up participating in
02:50 Desert
02:51 Storm and then when I went to college I
02:53 did RC and went back in the
02:55 military and from there I just stayed in
02:59 until I had a total of 22 years for
02:01 active in National Guard
02:03 service thank you for your service too
02:05 and as little Air Force veteran we uh we
02:08 understand a lot that's going on but
02:11 something that a lot of people haven't
02:12 heard about Zach including me is the
02:15 states attorney's office here we have a
02:17 program called Veterans Court what in
02:20 the world is it what's your mission and
02:24 why is it so important to our veterans
02:26 well it's important to the veterans
02:28 because when veterans come out of the
03:30 military and even some of the active
03:32 duty members that serve at Tindle or the
03:35 Navy base uh
03:37 locally uh we can get a way to give them
03:42 a diversion rather than putting a
03:44 conviction on their permanent record
03:47 that's going to affect them with
03:48 security clearances or anything they
03:50 might want to do later in life uh
03:53 because milit the the military service
03:56 has such a dramatic effect right uh on
03:59 people
03:01 throughout their career in the military
03:03 and when they try to reenter the
03:04 community based on what they do the
03:07 seriousness of what they do the fact
03:08 that it's dangerous the the fact that
03:11 the rules are different right when
03:13 you're in the military uh it it can make
03:16 the uh interaction with the world pretty
03:20 hard and uh pretty overwhelming when you
03:24 go out and all of a sudden you don't
03:27 have that big military machine behind
03:29 you and you're buddies to your left and
04:31 your
04:32 right well and one thing that's that's
04:34 really great about this
04:36 is being military veterans like we are
04:39 we see the different aspects of life you
04:41 were in Desert Storm and everything and
04:43 you see what it does to an individual
04:45 and I was over Korea with some of the
04:47 army people Japan uh it's kind of like
04:52 when you get out of the service you're
04:54 just you're afraid to say anything
04:55 you're afraid to do anything so you just
04:58 kind of get lost in the back ground and
04:00 then this loneliness that you feel and
04:02 this desire to be with other people you
04:04 don't really know how to do it but so
04:06 you kind of get into maybe the illegal
04:08 side of it yes and how do you break that
04:12 barrier to these veterans that are
04:14 suffering from mental health uh drug
04:17 abuse and and especially PTSD how do we
04:20 get them to understand that this is
04:21 something that they really could benefit
04:24 from well when they come into the system
04:28 when they're arrested and we can
05:31 identify them as a veteran who who
05:34 doesn't have a dishonorable
05:36 discharge um a general discharge is
05:40 okay uh and identify them as being in
05:46 need a they got an addiction problem
05:49 they got PTSD and there's some domestic
05:51 violence going on or something like that
05:54 uh or they just don't have
05:57 resources um we can identify them
05:00 and as part of what they do with the
05:03 court to resolve their case we can put
05:04 them into the veterans treatment court
05:07 and through the court we can get them
05:09 connected up not only with the resources
05:11 that we have in the community but also a
05:14 direct link into the VA somebody that
05:17 can get them an appointment it might
05:19 take a minute to get the appointment a
05:20 few weeks but somebody they can talk to
05:24 that can help them uh address what their
05:27 need is right and they get that feeling
05:30 and I thank goodness I'm no longer alone
06:33 now you can't force them into this right
06:35 Zach it's completely voluntary so let's
06:38 say that you talk to an individual and
06:40 they decide that yeah I want I want to
06:43 get in the program kind of lead us
06:45 through the steps of how you get them
06:46 into the program and then we'll also get
06:49 into about the veterans mentors and
06:51 things like that that you need but how
06:52 do we get them into the program and
06:54 what's the steps to go okay so a veteran
06:59 has a felony drug possession case and he
06:02 is formally charged and comes to court
06:05 and he's assigned a public defender and
06:07 we can identify that that person is a
06:10 veteran and he does qualify for the
06:12 program well rather than just throwing
06:14 him back to the
06:16 Wolves uh what we would do is as part of
06:19 his plea agreement we would plea him and
06:22 the court would order him to complete
06:24 veterans treatment court but he's got a
06:27 again he's he's volunteering to do it um
07:31 then he comes off of that docket that
07:34 court docket and he'll start going to
07:36 court two times a month in the process
07:40 uh he is screened to see if he qualifies
07:42 he has to fill out a questionnaire he
07:44 has to tell us about his background he
07:47 we get to look at his criminal record or
07:48 her criminal record uh and see what's
07:52 there uh so that we can ensure that
07:55 they're a fit and there's some
07:56 likelihood of
07:58 success now one of the things that we
07:00 look at also is once they get into the
07:03 program they have the counselors and
07:05 things that are available for them but
07:08 they also
07:09 need mentors right what what's what's
07:13 the what is a mentor and what what kind
07:15 of qualities in a veteran Mentor are you
07:18 looking for well we need uh vets who
07:24 are uh on the right path who who have
07:27 been successful in the civilian world
07:30 and are willing to give their time to
08:32 help guide somebody uh who has some
08:36 problems what I've what I've witnessed
08:39 so far is a lot of the mentoring that I
08:42 see going on is with the with the Vets
08:47 who have been in the Pro program longer
08:49 or taking care of the Vets who are just
08:51 coming into the program uh for example
08:55 that they have a group drug treatment
08:56 that they do and the guys that have been
08:58 there a while they're take they're
08:59 taking care of the guys who just got in
08:04 and they're exchanging phone phone
08:06 numbers uh it's like being in a military
08:09 unit so in other
08:12 words once you're a veteran and you
08:15 decide that you want to do something
08:17 like this
08:18 Zach you don't need as a as a mentor you
08:22 don't need a degree in Psychology or or
08:25 something like this you just need to be
08:28 willing to give your time to help
09:30 because veterans like to talk to
09:31 Veterans they'll talk to Veterans yeah
09:33 they will now what are some of the
09:36 actual requirements we talked about you
09:38 have to be a veteran but there's other
09:40 things too you have to have to have time
09:42 available you got to be willing to do
09:44 you know extra
09:46 training you got to be willing to put
09:48 your trust in the court system too by
09:50 the way speaking of the court system is
09:53 there is everybody in full agreement
09:56 with this here in our Bay district court
09:58 system uh the the local attorneys the
09:01 state attorney's office the judges and
09:03 that where there's no no once they're in
09:05 that program everybody is there to help
09:07 them they're not going to say okay I'll
09:08 get you in the program but just give me
09:10 the time I'll get you in jail for
09:11 something the well the veteran has to
09:15 walk the straight and narrow once
09:17 they're in the program the the the goal
09:19 of the program is
09:21 to get the veteran treatment and get the
09:24 veteran well and able to function with
09:29 out to you know can we beat the
10:32 addiction can we come up with anger
10:34 management
10:36 resources uh and train get you training
10:39 whether it be locally or whether it be
10:40 with the VA so that you can manage your
10:43 anger can we can we get you where you
10:46 know how
10:47 to not take a handful of pills or smoke
10:51 some methamphetamine to deal with your
10:55 stress that you have other outlets and
10:58 other ways to do that
10:00 and everyone at the courthouse is
10:02 committed to it there's there's actually
10:04 two other programs I mean we have a drug
10:05 court there right and that and that is
10:08 an an alternative uh
10:12 to the traditional you know you've done
10:16 this you're going to prison sort of
10:18 thing and we also have a mental health
10:20 court um and we see a lot of people go
10:24 through the mental health court and and
10:26 the point is
10:28 to give the these people some
11:30 alternative to get them to a position in
11:33 life where there's not going to be any
11:35 recidivism where they won't go
11:38 reoffend one of the things that I want
11:41 you to expand on a little bit
11:44 is why this program do we think Zach
11:47 that it's important that the mentors
11:50 also be veterans why is that so
11:53 important well it's important that the
11:55 mentors in the program be
11:58 veterans because they have some
11:00 commonality with the people who are
11:03 going through the
11:07 program in in the military
11:11 it there's a degree of hardship right in
11:15 what you do and a lot of
11:18 vets uh you
11:22 know you can take experiencing that
11:26 hardship and you've got something in
11:28 common with somebody
12:31 someone who's never spent the night on
12:33 the
12:33 tarmac yeah in the rain in the cold that
12:39 they just don't understand there's no
12:41 common ground to draw from right
12:44 somebody who's been you know driving a
12:46 truck every day they're a
12:48 civilian and uh that's that's what they
12:50 do for a living it's it's just not the
12:52 same nobody ever told them that they had
12:54 to be out there at 2 o' in the morning
12:56 standing
12:58 there now all right let's say i' I've
12:02 looked at the program and I decid I want
12:04 to be a
12:07 veteran what are my steps involved that
12:10 if I want to be a veteran what do I have
12:12 to do to satisfy the responsibilities of
12:14 the program and also satisfy the
12:16 responsibilities of the court in the
12:18 legal
12:19 system as far as a a participant in the
12:22 court yes as a me as a mentor do I need
12:25 to background check do I need to be you
12:27 know tested for drugs
12:30 like we have a there's an application
13:33 okay that you can fill out and it's in
13:34 that that packet that I gave you and
13:38 through the through the court you will
13:39 be vetted and then we can hook hook a
13:42 mentor up uh with a
13:45 veteran um once you're once you're
13:49 approved and and Miss Covington's going
13:51 to be the Shante Covington at the
13:53 courthouse is going to be the the point
13:54 of contact for that just as she screens
13:56 the veterans that are coming in now um
13:00 once once you said okay Jerry you're
13:03 you're qualified you can be a a person
13:05 in the vent the uh the veteran ventor
13:08 program how do you pair me up with a
13:11 veteran how what
13:12 qualifications what specifications do
13:15 you look at to pair the mentor up with
13:17 the veteran that's having the
13:20 issues well I'm going to first of all
13:22 say do you have any Common Ground there
13:26 uh I don't I don't think we're going to
13:27 make a random assignment as to
14:30 here I got a guy who you
14:33 know
14:35 who for his recreational activities he
14:38 he he plays a lot of golf and and he
14:41 does that sort of thing and we've got
14:43 another guy and uh all he to say the
14:47 veteran that's in treatment all he does
14:49 is he he likes to go fishing and that
14:52 sort of thing we we're going to find
14:53 some common ground there and we're
14:58 probably we're probably try to find some
14:60 age commonality as
14:02 well um so that we're not
14:05 putting uh you know an old an older
14:09 Mentor with a really young kid who just
14:11 got out sure life experience and needs
14:14 are are way different one thing too we
14:17 need to clear up Zach is for some reason
14:20 when you start talking about these type
14:22 of programs in veterans everybody thinks
14:25 male but there's females out there too
14:28 with these same problems that qualify
14:30 for this absolutely absolutely back in
15:33 in
15:36 2019 or no it was 2018 my wife competed
15:41 in in a pageant it's Miss veteran
15:43 America the fastest growing veteran
15:47 population being homeless is female
15:51 veterans and uh she she went to raise
15:53 money for that but we see female
15:55 veterans in Bay County and even the VA
15:58 is SK
15:01 um so that if you're a male we can take
15:04 you but if you're a female and you might
15:05 have a
15:06 child that that presents a real
15:09 challenge um
15:11 but with the court and the state there's
15:15 some there's some other resources you
15:18 know there's a Department of Children
15:19 and Families likely if there's a female
15:22 vet and there's a child involved or even
15:23 a male vet and child and family involved
15:26 there may also be another case following
15:28 the veterans court
15:30 in in the dependency system yeah and
16:32 that leads me to to a couple of
16:34 questions too
16:36 is do you pay pair male with male and
16:39 female with female or does it make any
16:41 difference as long as you because this
16:43 is all supervised you don't go and say
16:45 I'm going to come to your house and talk
16:46 to you this is supervised type in isn't
16:48 it yes yes um you you're going to go by
16:52 the guidance of what whatever they give
16:54 you at the court now now do you approve
16:57 me through the State's Attorney's office
16:59 or does the court itself have to approve
16:01 one of the judges you're going to get
16:03 vetted by Miss Covington okay okay and
16:07 your name's going to go on a list and
16:09 then then they're going to do that
16:10 administrative piece of hooking you up
16:13 and now of course this is all volunteer
16:15 there's no pay involved this is all
16:17 voluntary veterans helping veterans it
16:20 is let's talk about some of the specific
16:22 programs now I know each one is
16:24 different if you have mental health
16:26 problems or drug problems take me
16:28 through the drug
17:30 portion okay so if you have a drug
17:35 problem we are going to get you in
17:39 veterans court and the first thing
17:40 you're going to do is you're going to be
17:42 evaluated you're going to have to talk
17:44 to uh I believe his name is Mark blue
17:48 and Mark is going to make some
17:50 determination as to
17:53 where what the best Avenue to get you
17:55 treatment is locally there's a group
17:59 that they're going to have to go to but
17:02 do they need an intensive outpatient or
17:05 do they need some inpatient and then
17:07 there's an inroads to get you over to
17:09 buuy to the inpatient drug treatment or
17:13 up to Tuscaloosa to the inpatient
17:15 substance abuse treatment and the VA is
17:17 going to pay for that right right um the
17:21 the the State of Florida is not going to
17:22 do it and the Veteran's not going to be
17:24 out of pocket to get it
17:26 done um and then you're going to come
17:28 back
17:29 and you're going to have to go to the
18:31 group you know there is the after care
18:33 portion sure and you're going to be
18:35 required to do your analysis so that we
18:37 can make sure that uh you know you're I
18:41 mean you were there because of a felony
18:44 exactly you volunteered and we want to
18:46 make sure that you're that you're making
18:48 it you're walking the
18:50 line um but as the veteran goes through
18:53 there's it's designed to take about a
18:56 year okay and there's there's less and
18:58 less super
19:59 veteran and what kind of treatment is
19:02 available there that differs from the
19:03 drug treatment well there the the
19:06 veterans going to get
19:08 screened then the veteran is going to
19:12 get appointments they're going to go to
19:14 they're going to see a psychiatrist
19:16 they're going to see a staff
19:17 psychiatrist with the
19:18 VA uh they may or may not get
19:21 meds then they're going to get
19:23 appointments whether it now Belo is also
19:27 a practicing psychologist and he sees
20:30 Veterans for the VA his practice is over
20:33 in cresview but he does tele tellah
20:35 Health stuff with these veterans and and
20:38 whether or not he would be monitoring
20:40 them or someone else uh I I can't say
20:45 but they're going to get appointments
20:48 and they're going to be tracked and
20:51 they're going to be trained and given
20:54 you know strategies to deal with their
20:57 to deal with the PTSD that anger that
20:00 sort of
20:02 thing what about the families of these
20:05 individuals act are are they involved
20:08 are they getting any counseling from
20:11 individuals about what to expect with
20:13 the veteran in this program because they
20:15 don't just take the veterans say okay
20:17 you're cut off from your family no life
20:19 no kids no nothing how are the families
20:21 involved in this well I've I have
20:23 personally witnessed Family Support uh
20:26 we did a graduation and the veterans
20:28 family came and son
21:30 came um and the the goal is to keep them
21:35 with their family while they're going
21:38 through the program unless there's I
21:41 mean there's a danger of something yeah
21:44 it if it's a domestic violence case or a
21:46 battery there may be some sort of a no
21:48 contact order there but in going through
21:51 the counseling if the
21:54 victim and the veteran both want to re
21:59 unify for the sake of their family um
21:03 the veteran is getting
21:05 training he's he's getting anger
21:07 management he's getting uh
21:11 interventions and and that's going to be
21:13 from from both the VA and from local
21:17 resources uh and then as far as children
21:21 go
21:24 um we can it that can become contentious
21:30 uh because a lot of times we see
22:32 veterans that are involved in the court
22:34 that have very contentious family law
22:37 things going on at the same time and
22:39 there may be some no contact orders and
22:43 this can the involvement with our court
22:46 can stem from not understanding what the
22:48 court orders mean in the other
22:51 case um and we we can help them
22:54 understand that and we also can help
22:57 them deal with the grief of not being
22:59 able to see their
22:01 families well that's good that you try
22:03 to keep those families together if at
22:05 all possible
22:07 let let's say that the veteran program
22:10 drug mental health doesn't doesn't
22:12 really make any difference but because
22:14 mental health Act is so much more
22:16 difficult to work with is that you set
22:18 up usually roughly a year for the drug
22:21 program what about the mental health
22:22 program does that usually take a little
22:24 bit longer to get some of these
22:26 inhibition some of these thoughts and
22:27 feelings that for this better except
23:30 well the the program is we're designed
23:34 to it's a year model so and that's going
23:37 to be a year model with probably at any
23:42 case that's going to come in the door if
23:44 it takes longer than we adjust what
23:46 we're doing um
23:50 say you can't meet your you can't get to
23:54 your appointments and attend your
23:56 meetings so that you can get to the next
23:60 phase of treatment we're going to leave
23:02 you in that in that
23:04 phase and I've I've seen guys get
23:09 extended M um 13 14 15
23:14 months and when I was a private
23:17 practicing attorney I actually had a
23:19 client go through it and he was able to
23:21 get through all of the treatment inside
23:24 of I want to say seven
23:26 months yeah well that's good and that's
23:28 one thing too because a lot of these
23:30 veterans act they're used to military
24:32 stuff you got a month to do this a month
24:33 to do this if you tell them one
24:36 year they say okay it's got to be done
24:39 in a year but you don't desert them if
24:40 they need that extra time and that's
24:42 what's good about absolutely not let's
24:44 let's move into something else now once
24:46 they've got through this program and
24:49 everything does this alleviate any of
24:52 the guilty verdicts they have against
24:55 them and does it
24:57 erase the
24:59 crime they're convicted of or the
24:01 potential crime does that erase it off
24:02 of their
24:04 record it's it's situationally
24:07 dependent generally speaking this is a
24:10 Divergent so that we're going to
24:12 withhold a conviction or we're going to
24:14 dismiss the case upon successful
24:16 completion it won't it won't be like it
24:19 never even happened because it it's
24:22 always going to if you go do a
24:24 background check it's going to show up
24:27 that you were charged with a crime it
24:28 won that you were
24:30 convicted okay and then we have we have
25:33 other situations where veterans are
25:37 struggling in and out and in and out and
25:40 in and and out because of alcoholism or
25:42 drug
25:43 addiction and give them a chance to get
25:48 set their life straight we can't erase
25:51 what's happened in the past right but we
25:53 can help you deal with the future but
25:55 that's one thing that's that's good too
25:57 because these veterans going through the
25:58 the program if there still is something
25:00 left on their record a potential
25:03 employer of those individuals can say ah
25:06 look yes you had this problem here but
25:08 you went through this veterans court
25:10 system and things are going smoothly so
25:12 does that work in their favor yes it it
25:15 certainly does it certainly does um they
25:20 go and they treat they get treated in
25:22 veterans court we don't see a lot of
25:25 recidivism in that which is good yeah
25:29 absolutely that's the point we don't
26:31 want to see these people back out now we
26:33 have veterans who are hard-headed uh who
26:37 you know they get fail fail out or
26:39 dropped out of the program because they
26:41 refuse to go to their appointments yeah
26:44 they they don't stay in touch with with
26:47 beloo they don't do their uas they
26:50 continue to use
26:52 drugs um but the military you know was a
26:57 just a my CM a society at large and
26:01 there's always those guys there who are
26:04 Rebels they they they don't follow the
26:06 rules and they just skate by and there's
26:08 some of them that think that I don't
26:10 need this I'm I can do it all on my own
26:12 which which they can't they need to
26:13 reach out before we run out of time here
26:16 um how many veterans do we have in the
26:19 veterans court program right now and how
26:23 does he get paid for because if you're
26:25 not VA qualified you can't just say Okay
26:28 VA in this program you got you got to
26:30 pay for it so how many veterans do we
27:31 have right now and how is the additional
27:33 paid Pro part of the program take care
27:35 of so right now I want to say actively
27:38 coming to court we've had nine veterans
27:41 consistently in in
27:44 2024 now it's Mr bassford Larry bassford
27:48 my boss it's it's his intent to grow the
27:51 program yes and we have we actually now
27:54 have a vet from Calhoun County I think
27:57 we're about to get one from from Jackson
27:59 County there's been as many as
27:01 12 and I think we could handle as many
27:04 as 20
27:08 uh
27:09 and do you have the V the veterans
27:12 maners available for that you have that
27:14 group where if you got say another five
27:16 or six can you have people that can step
27:18 I'll tell you what we can use Menor in
27:20 the system so if anybody's interested
27:22 and filling out that application and
27:24 passing that on to shant okay um we can
27:28 certainly use the mentors okay um
28:33 quickly here too Zach how how's how's
28:35 the how's the program paid for because
28:38 some of the times they have to pay for
28:39 some of that activities themselves
28:42 so in
28:45 the between 2010 and
28:48 2018 um there was a judge who was in
28:51 okalo County Pat Manny and he had leg he
28:54 lobbied and had legislation passed so
28:57 that the state of Florida of funds the
28:60 courts to have personnel there to do the
28:03 veterans treatment court so that takes
28:06 care of the administrative piece okay um
28:10 the public defenders and the state
28:12 attorneys like myself we participate
28:14 because we we're we're assigned right
28:17 there to participate being a veteran I'm
28:19 glad to come and do that sure to to help
28:22 out and as far as the other
28:25 resources um it's paid for however the
28:29 government would would fund you know
29:31 veteran gets sent to life management
29:33 that's funded by the state I'm not sure
29:35 which department sure um or you're going
29:38 to the VA those resources are paid for
29:41 by the federal government all right we
29:44 got just a couple of minutes to go here
29:46 about to run out of time but very
29:47 quickly Zach how satisfying is it to you
29:51 as an assistant States Attorney to see a
29:54 veteran successfully complete this
29:56 program and go on to a great life well
29:59 seeing the graduations are are are
29:01 really it's it it's an impressive thing
29:04 um you know the the court brings in all
29:07 the service Flags sure and uh and and
29:10 the veteran has done something
29:12 significant because he started at a
29:15 place where he he was addicted or he
29:18 couldn't deal with his his mental issues
29:22 and that day he's walking out uh a as a
29:25 prideful veteran uh as if he's a
29:28 accomplish something and that's that's
29:30 of course a good feeling all right
30:32 anybody wants any more information on
30:34 the program how do they get it uh well
30:38 they can reach out to the Bay County
30:40 Courthouse um or you know you can email
30:45 you can email me at the at the state
30:47 attorney's office okay um that there's
30:50 always somebody there that'll give you
30:52 the information run by and talk to the
30:54 front desk there at the State's
30:55 Attorney's Office it's Don't Be Afraid
30:57 don't be afraid you guys are there to
30:59 help yeah we are Zach thank you so much
30:01 for coming in today I appreciate it keep
30:03 up the good work over there and uh
30:06 unfortunately ladies and gentlemen this
30:08 is this is it we're out of time once
30:10 again here but again I want you to
30:12 understand that this veterans court is a
30:14 program that is available to help our
30:17 veterans be it female male it doesn't
30:19 make any difference and it's not only
30:21 the veterans that are us in service that
30:23 are out of service now there's also
30:25 active duty people that can be available
30:27 for this and and into the program so go
30:30 by the courthouse go by and talk to
31:32 shant hton over there or go by talk to
31:34 Zack van Z van djk at the State's
31:37 Attorney's office or Larry Bashford
31:39 he'll help you out too have a great day
31:41 everyone this is Jerry tabot with
31:43 another edition of our military
31:57 community
31:23 me