MISSION
The mission of the Douglas County Veterans Treatment Court is to honor the service of justice-involved veterans by providing a rehabilitative program that combines intensive judicial supervision and treatment services to address veterans service-related experiences, and enhances public safety by returning law-abiding and productive citizens to the community.
INTRODUCTION
In November 2016, the Douglas County Veterans Treatment Court (DCVTC) was established to offer eligible justice-involved veterans an alternative to the traditional criminal justice system by providing them support and rehabilitation through comprehensive substance use and/or mental health treatment, education, employment, vocational programs; and community resource referrals for housing, childcare, and transportation, all while being judicially monitored. It is an 18 to 24 month program.
Problem-solving courts, such as veterans treatment courts, drug courts, and mental health courts, were developed across the country to address the often unique risks and needs associated with various targeted justice-involved populations. Similar to these problem-solving courts, the general structure of the DCVTC will require participants to enter a plea before the court, but sentencing will be withheld while the veteran participates in the DCVTC. If the participant graduates, DCVTC shall dismiss, or in the case of a DUI referral, reduce charges. If the participant fails to graduate for any reason, then the sentencing portion of the plea will be executed and the participant sentenced in the normal course.
The DCVTC is made up of an extensive collaboration between the criminal justice system (judge, prosecutor, defense lawyer) and dedicated partners, mentors, mental health specialists, addiction specialists, including criminal justice, federal veterans’ agencies, and local community veterans’ organizations. The target population includes military veterans who have been charged with a felony offense(s) and who are diagnosed with substance use and/or mental health issues.
DCVTC Application process:
If your client is currently charged with a felony charge and is currently serving or has served in the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard), any Reserve Component (Army Reserve, Marine Reserve, Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Coast Guard Reserve) or the Army National Guard or Air National Guard, he or she may be eligible to participate in the Douglas County Veteran’s Treatment Court for the 4th Judicial District.
If your client is interested in having his or her case considered for referral to the Veteran’s Treatment Court, fill out the Douglas County Veterans Treatment Court Application.
The application can be printed out, or the application can be filled out online and saved to your computer.
If you are not able to fill out the application inside your web browser, please download the application to your computer and then open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill and sign it. Please use Adobe Reader's "File Save As" option to include the name of the applicant or the applicant's case number in the name of the PDF. Completed applications should be emailed to the
Applications filled out in writing can be presented to the Deputy County Attorney assigned to prosecute your case. Once received, the Deputy County Attorney assigned to the case along with the Veteran’s Treatment Court Prosecutor will review the case and determine whether the case will be referred to the Veteran’s Treatment Court for consideration by the Veteran’s Treatment Court Team.
DCVTC Contacts:
Deputy County Attorney Rob MacTaggart (402)444-4608
DCVTC Coordinator Rob Owens (402)444-4187
DCVTC Supervision Officer Eric Schult (402)444-4186