Attorney proposes veterans courts

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March 2, 2010

By SANDRA K. REABUCK The Tribune-Democrat Tue Mar 02, 2010, 11:18 PM EST

EBENSBURG — An attorney representing an Iraq War veteran suggested Tuesday that the Cambria County Court consider setting up a veterans court with special programs to assist defendants such as hers.

Lisa Lazzari, chief public defender, asked that all charges – including bank robbery – against John Fletcher be continued while he undergoes a forensic psychiatric exam at the Veterans Justice Outreach program at the Altoona VA Hospital.

Judge Linda Fleming, over the objections of prosecutors, continued the cases while asking Lazzari to have the exam completed and a report on Fletcher submitted by an April 7 pretrial conference.

Fletcher, 29, of the Johnstown area, said that he is living and working in Elk County and continues to be under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. He said that he undergoes individual counseling twice a month and group sessions twice a month at the DuBois VA Center.

Fleming said that any attempt to set up a veterans court here would not be in time to help Fletcher. But the defendant said that he wanted it “for other veterans in the future.”

Fleming previously had entered guilty pleas in several cases, including felony robbery.

But he withdrew the pleas in December when another of his attorneys, Caram Abood, said that he would rather have the cases decided by a jury than potentially have his client face more time in prison.

Fletcher had been in prison for 18 months, which included some inpatient time in the psychiatric unit at Memorial Medical Center, before being released in July by Judge Gerard Long.

Any additional time in prison would have required Fletcher to drop out of therapy and be counterproductive to his recovery from PTSD, Lazzari said.

“There is some research that jail is not a solution to what vets are suffering,” she said.

A spokesman at the Altoona VA Hospital previously said that therapy through the VA ceases when veterans are in prison because the criminal justice system then would be responsible.

Lazzari said that three other Pennsylvania counties – Allegheny, Lackawanna and Philadelphia – have set up veterans courts.

In Allegheny County, veterans who face misdemeanor or felony charges – ranging from drunken driving to burglary, arson and assault – can be eligible for the program, according to published reports. The veterans are placed under strict probation conditions – including frequent meetings with probation officers – and are teamed with a mentor to provide support throughout the process.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Hochfeld suggested that rather than delaying the entry of a plea in the cases, Fletcher should proceed with that step and then be ready for sentencing when the new psychiatric report is ready. But Lazzari said that she didn’t want to do that in the event that the report would provide a defense for the cases and they would then go to trial.

Fletcher is charged with terroristic threats and robbery in the knifepoint holdup at the 1st Summit Bank in East Taylor Township on Sept. 25, 2008.

He also is accused of phoning in a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of two nearby schools in an attempt to divert police from the robbery.

He also is accused of criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy in the theft of copper from Emmancon Service Corp. in Johnstown in September 2008, and simple assault and stalking for assaulting his former girlfriend in June 2008 in Johnstown.

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