LAKEPORT, Calif. – Life has a series of paths, some easy, some hard. While the easiest route is often the most tempting, sometimes the harder way is the one that leads to a better place.
On Wednesday, attorneys, court officials, probation officers, representatives of the District Attorney’s Office, family members, veterans and a retired judge converged in Lake County Superior Court’s Department 1 for a celebration of people who – for all the right reasons – chose the tougher option for resolving their legal and personal problems.
After nearly two years in existence, the Lake County Veterans Court on Wednesday celebrated its first graduate, Joseph Taylor, 43, of Clearlake.
In addition to Taylor, several other veterans were honored that day for their efforts to get their lives back on track through individually tailored treatment – rather than a possible jail sentence – offered by the Lake County Veterans Court.
The attorneys, court officers and other officials who make up the veterans court team expressed pride in Taylor’s achievement while, at the same time, acknowledging that it was anything but assured. Quite the opposite.
“He’s had a tough road,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, part of the team of local officials guiding the program, told Lake County News. He also was on hand for Taylor’s graduation. “We were all surprised that he actually made it through.”
Hinchcliff said Taylor has been the toughest one yet of the veterans the court has serviced. “If he can make it through vets court, anyone can,” he said.
Taylor agreed that he is challenging. “I’m going to be the most difficult case that they have.”
Today, his outlook is improving, if slowly. He acknowledges that he still struggles. However, he noted, “I have my first sense of stability in my life” thanks to the Lake County Veterans Court.
“He’s an inspiration to the other guys,” said defense attorney Angela Carter, who manages the county’s indigent defense contract and sits on the committee that manages the veterans court. She sat beside Taylor at his graduation and gave him a congratulatory hug.
“Joe is a star,” said retired defense attorney Barry Melton, who also was present for the convening of the veterans court on Wednesday.
Melton, like the others, recognized the challenges Taylor has had, noting that after his military service, “He didn’t come back the same.”
The outcomes in veterans court come through a lot of hard work, gritty resolve and commitment not just from the participants but from the local officials behind the scenes who launched the court and have been keeping it moving forward in the face of potential funding cuts.
When it began in 2015, Lake County Veteran Court had just two veterans. Today the program is serving 10 veterans and has room for up to 40, said Hinchcliff.
The program has had an impact on its participants, he said. They have gotten off of drugs and are able to start having productive lives again. They’re spending more time with their families and, in one man’s case, he’s raising his children rather than being in prison.
Still another man going through the program who was in court on Wednesday recently received a prosthetic leg. “That’s changing his life,” Hinchcliff said.
The Lake County Veterans Court program also recently got more good news: The state has extended its grant funding for another year. The funds had been set to run out at the end of April, but now will continue through the end of April 2018, court officials said.
Launching the Lake County Veterans Court
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that there are “significant numbers” of veterans in the criminal justice system, with mental health and substance abuse being among the contributing factors.
Concerns for veterans in the criminal justice system gave rise to the creation of the model of a veterans treatment court in 2008. That year, the Center for Mental Health Service of the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration convened a conference with a variety of law enforcement, courts, veterans organizations and federal agencies to provide veterans with mental health treatment and keep them out of the criminal justice system.
Later in 2008, the first veterans treatment court was started in Buffalo, New York. By August 2010, there were 41 veterans treatment courts nationwide, the National Center for PTSD reported.
A May 2016 report on veterans courts from the National Institute of Corrections estimated that as of January of that year there were more than 260 veterans courts nationwide and hundreds more being developed.
According to the California Veterans Legal Task Force, as of July 2016 there were 26 veterans courts across California, including Lake’s.
The veterans court model, as local and state officials explain, is a hybrid court that uses a drug court-type approach to dealing with the many issues veterans in the court system face – including addiction and mental health issues, the latter sometimes the result of post traumatic stress from time in service and combat.
They add counseling, residential treatment, counseling groups, assistance from the Veterans Service Office and Behavioral Health and more to an 18-month program that is more stringent than most court experiences.
For those who participate, it requires the willingness to commit to recovery and personal responsibility, which the people who administer the program say can help them break the kinds of damaging behavioral cycles that get them into the criminal system in the first place.
Lake County has a large per-capita veterans population, estimated by local officials to be as high 12 percent. It is also home to its own VA Clinic, located in Clearlake, an active Veterans Service Office and many veterans groups who play important roles in the community.
As such, a veterans court approach – meant to more thoroughly address their unique needs and stop recidivism – was a direction local officials wanted to pursue.
A few years before the local veterans court’s formation in 2015, the groundwork was starting to be laid, according to Chief Probation Officer Rob Howe, who said he, along with Court Executive Officer Krista LeVier and Judge Richard Martin had attended a two-day conference on collaborative courts, which include veterans courts.
By that time, members of the local justice system already had seen the need for such a court, thanks to Lake County’s large veteran population. “It made sense,” Howe said in a 2015 interview.
LeVier said there had been local-level discussions about the type of collaborative court they wanted to establish, with a veterans court “obviously at the top of the list” due to the higher-than-average veteran population in Lake County and a passion among local officials for serving veterans.
“That’s how we got started,” she told Lake County News in the months after the program first began.
Soon, a funding opportunity arrived. The state’s Budget Act of 2014 appropriated $15 million from the Recidivism Reduction Fund Court Grant Program for a competitive grant program to be developed and administered by the Judicial Council.
That program’s intent, according to state documents, was to “support the administration and operation of trial court programs and practices known to reduce adult offender recidivism and enhance public safety.”
A December 2014 deadline was set for applications. A total of 38 proposals were submitted to the Judicial Council, including one from the Lake County Superior Court for a $439,613 grant in order to start its first veterans court.
In February 2015, the Judicial Council voted to allocate grants under the program totaling $13.6 million to 27 superior courts throughout California.
The Lake County Superior Court was among the courts receiving awards, getting its full request, with the state reporting that the project period was to extend from April 1, 2015, to April 30, 2017.
The grant announcement said Lake County Superior Court received the funding “for the planning and implementation of a veterans treatment court. The target population is local veterans and active-duty service members who are moderate- to high-risk felony offenders. The project prioritizes offenders with substance abuse-related offenses or histories and minor children. Both the total and project numbers to be served are 40.”
With the grant funds received, the Lake County Superior Court and its local partners got to work implementing the program, which Howe said was modeled after one already implemented in Solano County.
LeVier said the work started in the spring of 2015, shortly after the Lake County Superior Court was notified of the grant award.
The first court calendar for veterans court followed in July of that year, with referrals of potential candidates coming from Judge Andrew Blum, who was handling felonies, she said.
Howe would give the Board of Supervisors an update on the program in September 2015.
Today, the committee that runs the program includes Commissioner Doug Thiele, who presides over the cases and succeeded Vincent Lechowick, who was the original commissioner before retiring; court staffer Melissa Perry; a court reporter; Carter; District Attorney’s Office representatives, which include Hinchcliff and Rachel Abelson; Kristine Weigel of the Lake County Probation Office; Veterans Service Officer Saul Sanabria; Will VanSant-Glass, a veterans justice outreach specialist with the San Francisco VA Medical Center who serves Lake, Mendocino and Humboldt counties; and Chris Taliaferro, the Employment Development Department’s Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist.
To be eligible, veterans court participants must be veterans or active duty military, with an allegation of service-connected sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder substance abuse, or mental illness, according to its founding documents.
The program is rigorous. It includes an intensive level of supervision that not everyone will agree to follow, Hinchcliff said.
It includes creating a program specific to each individual. There is drug screening, residential and outpatient drug rehabilitation, group meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, counseling for PTSD, work to get them stable living situations and jobs.
There are other services and methods of support the team offers participants. Perry said she keeps a box of gift cards for various local stores on hand when veterans need assistance with shopping needs. She also has gift cards to the local cinema so vets can take their children to a show.
Additionally, she’s the one in charge of the mementos of achievement such as the certificates and dog tags given to Taylor and his fellow vets on Wednesday.
Originally, the local veterans court was limited to felony offenders only, which concerned Hinchcliff because he believed those committing misdemeanors such as public intoxication or petty theft would be the easiest to help.
He said Perry received permission to let misdemeanor offenders join, although there is limited participation from that group so far. That’s because for many of them, they’re looking at short-term jail sentences of 30 to 60 days. Instead, they would have to agree to the 18-month program. Still, people who want help and want to break their individual cycles will do it, he said.
They do have some misdemeanor participants, although on Wednesday one of them made clear he wasn’t happy with the program, and so was becoming the first participant to be removed from the program and sent back to the regular criminal court system. Hinchcliff said the man didn’t have any incentive to comply with the program’s requirements.
Hinchcliff said the program can take dozens more participants than it currently has. “We have to get people that want to get into vets court and qualify,” he said. “Most people won’t do that.”
Also, he pointed out, “We don’t let just anybody in.”
Carter added that participants have to agree to participate for at least 18 months and have been granted probation in order to be admitted. Beyond that, they have to agree to the terms of treatment, stable housing and more.
“It’s probation on steroids,” she said.
For all of its rigor, it’s working, said Hinchcliff. “It makes us feel good that we’re trying to help some of these people out and it’s succeeding.”
Getting into the program
Taylor was a wrestling and football star at Lower Lake High School. After his 1992 graduation, he entered the United States Army, serving from 1996 in areas including the Persian Gulf Theater, where he experienced combat.
He left the military not long after Priscilla, his wife, high school sweetheart and mother of his two sons, was diagnosed with cancer. She died in November 1999, and he said at that point his life unraveled.
Between the PTSD he lives with from his combat experiences and his wife’s death, “I couldn’t adjust to society.”
Taylor’s life devolved into a series of criminal cases resulting in 24 violent violations, among them attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, he said in an interview with Lake County News. He would be in and out of prison between 2003 and 2008. His children would be raised by a local pastor and his wife.
In 2015, he was back in the local jail, when Veterans Service Officer Saul Sanabria visited him and encouraged him to enter the program, which was supposed to solve probation issues and also help him get his service-connected pension.
Veterans court team members were concerned at times that Taylor might not make it through the program. But they stepped up to assist.
Taylor, who admits he doesn’t bond well with other people who haven’t had his type of combat experiences, nevertheless developed respect for team members who kept their word to him. “Honor goes a long way with me.”
Those who earned his praise included VanSant-Glass, “who proved beyond any doubt that it’s more than a job to him.”
He said he also liked getting advice and help from Hinchcliff, although sometimes it veered into tough love.
During one of his court appearances earlier in the program, Taylor began to complain about the program. Hinchcliff gave him a stern dressing down – or, in his less formal description, a chewing out – during that court session.
“It straightened him out,” said Hinchcliff, and Taylor moved forward in a positive direction. “We didn’t cut him any slack.”
One of those getting special praise from Taylor is defense attorney William Conwell, who Taylor said was always there for him and whose support and friendship helped him get through the program.
He’s known Taylor for a long time, Conwell said. “Joe is a special guy.”
Conwell is himself “an informal part of the apparatus” of the veterans court, explaining that sometimes team members call him to ask for him to help out.
At the Wednesday court appearance and afterward, Melton and team members also recognized Conwell for his efforts, which have included driving Taylor to medical appointments in San Francisco.
Conwell is self-effacing about the support he’s offered. “It’s nice being able to help someone through a very bad period of their life,” he said. “I was placed in a position where I could help them.”
To Conwell, there has been a change in Taylor, who is improving, and who made the commitment to complete the program “as a matter of pride.”
A day in Lake County Veterans Court
Carter said veterans court convenes twice monthly. On the days that court convenes, the committee that runs it meets ahead of time to go over cases as part of their effort to individualize treatment.
Cases first come to Carter’s attention, with a list of veterans who are booked into the jail and charges given to her. She then provides that information to the attorneys on the county defense contract so that the veterans court option can be explored.
On Wednesday, seven men – including Taylor – appeared in veterans court. Five of them received praise for their efforts, one man who had been referred said he opted not to participate and the seventh man who complained about the process and was expected to be referred out.
The atmosphere of the proceedings is markedly different from what one might encounter in a regular criminal court.
Commissioner Thiele, in a professional but easygoing manner, discussed each of the cases with the participants, giving encouragement and suggestions.
He urged one man to consider a return to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, checked on treatment status for another, praised them for keeping appointments, encouraged them in health goals and finding steady, safe housing situations.
For those making progress, he and others remarked on their achievements, and there were frequent rounds of applause.
When Taylor came forward, Thiele recounted his challenges and praised Taylor’s parents for their support. He also invited Taylor back as a returning graduate on June 21.
Taylor even read a statement – more accurately, a poem in verse – to explain his experiences, thanking both the veterans court team and God for getting him to where he was. In turn, the team lauded him for the efforts he had made on his own behalf.
“I’m really proud of you,” said Hinchcliff, shaking Taylor’s hand. “You made it.”
Carter said Taylor has come a long way, and his participation is meaningful for all of the veterans in the program.
Particularly meaningful for Taylor was the appearance of Lechowick, who had vowed that upon retiring he would never return to court unless it was to see Taylor graduate from the program. Lechowick kept his word.
“You took the longer road. You took the harder road,” but ultimately it was the better road, Lechowick told Taylor.
By participating in veterans court, Lechowick said Taylor had broken his personal cycle of being in and out of the criminal justice system, and he encouraged him to return and mentor others.
Lechowick also recognized the team that has kept the veterans court moving forward, as well as Conwell. He added, “I thought this was going to die” due to lack of funding.
Both Conwell and Taylor later recognized Lechowick for making his final return trip to court for the graduation. “Lechowick really did keep an eye out,” Conwell said.
What’s ahead
Taylor’s isn’t a ride-off-into-the-sunset story, at least not yet.
He still has legal issues to resolve, including probation that he said he was led to understand that veterans court would remove and $1,000 fines that he’s trying to work off through community service.
There are his own anger issues to face on a daily basis, a desire toward reclusiveness that he acknowledges isn’t necessarily good for him. He’d prefer to not live in the middle of town, and says he struggles to deal with people.
And there are the very real, everyday demands of paying the bills and just getting by.
He said he’s still waiting to be approved for the service-related pension Veterans Service Office staff indicated he’s eligible to receive, and which so far appears caught up in a bureaucratic tangle.
In the meantime, he’s unable to make ends meet, and says people frequently lend him money that he’s so far been unable to repay. He’d like to find some kind of work, like landscaping.
Still, he’s remaining hopeful.
Team members indicated that the support network created for Taylor and other veterans will continue even once they’re past the veterans court program.
Those who are extending their commitment include Conwell. He said he’ll continue to help Taylor, and expects to work with him on those remaining probation and fine issues that have yet to be resolved.
When considering all of the veterans that have come through the veterans court program, Carter said it’s hard to stop wanting to offer them help and support.
“You get attached to them,” said Carter. “They’re laying it all out there in a big way.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Lake County Veterans Court team and participants work to change lives
- Elizabeth Larson
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