Watch above: Circuit Judge Lisa Herndon presides over the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court in Ocala. “We actually see results and see how people progress through the court system in a positive way, and how they benefit ultimately, and hopefully harness whatever demons or problems that they have," she said. (Sandra McDonald/WUFT News)
Moments before the proceedings started, the mood outside Courtroom 3D at the Marion County Judicial Center in Ocala was friendly, pleasant and relaxed.
A young mother sat with two children, with one in a stroller. Between 15-20 men talked about the weather and how they were doing generally. Some had walking canes, others still young and standing tall. Some were in full Army green; some of the rest wore shirts and hats from other military branches. All were veterans ensnared in the criminal justice system.
They filed into the small courtroom at 10:15 a.m., the bailiff welcoming everyone inside, asking them to turn off their cellphones – his tone much different than in a regular criminal courtroom.
The mother left one child with someone in the hallway and held the other on her hip as she greeted two women in the gallery. “Are you doing OK?” one asked. “Like, really doing OK?”
The Marion County Veterans Treatment Court is among 32 diversionary or pre-trial programs that serve Floridians with mental or physical difficulties – for example, substance addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder – stemming from their military service.
Since their inception in a mental health court in Buffalo, New York, in 2008, there are over 500 veterans treatment courts nationwide. Florida has the fourth most such courts of any state (32), and over 1.3 million veterans, the second highest number of veterans in the country.
Watch above: Michael and Jennifer Crandon, both military veterans, share a moment after his graduation. She said she was not sure if her husband would have improved his behavior if he had gone through the regular court system. (Sandra McDonald/WUFT News)
“How is everybody doing?” a woman asked cheerfully as she stepped into the courtroom in Ocala.
“Very well,” someone yelled back. “Thank you, Ms. Mary.”
Everyone else said something equally positive.
Mary McNeloms is the veterans justice outreach specialist for Marion and Sumter Counties. The treatment court works closely with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and McNeloms offers resources such as health care and housing assistance, both things traditional courts do not.
“This is a fantastic program,” Walter Flinn, an assistant public defender for the state’s Fifth Judicial Circuit (Marion, Lake, Citrus, Hernando, Sumter Counties), told a group of veterans during a later court proceeding. “I’ve never seen so many resources funneled into a program. Don’t waste this grand opportunity.”
Eligible veterans are taken out of the regular court system and placed into the special program, which requires community service, therapy appointments and other care that the judge and court-related personnel decide are what’s best for each defendant. Each defendant’s periodic turn before the judge ends with a respective military battle cry chant from those in the gallery: “Hoo-ah!” for Army, “Ooh-rah!” for Marines, “Hoo-yah!” for Navy and “Aim high!” for the Air Force.
Veterans are typically identified early in the criminal process – sometimes while in jail – and have their case reviewed by the local State Attorney’s Office, which determines whether they qualify for the program. Cases can be misdemeanors or felonies, but eligibility is dictated by whether the subject needs and wants treatment, not by the crime itself. Felony DUI cases are ineligible, according to the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court website.
Before 2021, when a new state law changed the process, the judge decided which cases to put on the docket, possibly contributing to the falling number of cases reported last year. In 2021, Florida’s veteran courts served 770 defendants, 20 of them in Ocala. In 2020, there were 632 veterans admitted to the program, 61 in Ocala.
Judge Lisa Herndon entered the courtroom around 10:20 a.m. Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance – with some, no doubt owing to their military service, doing so with gusto – before court employees informed the defendants en masse about other community resources. Then, one by one, they approached the lectern to speak to Herndon about their progress.
Herndon typically has a question for the day that she asks each veteran. On this day, it’s “What is a good thing that has happened in the last two weeks?” (Another day, she asked how defendants would tell someone new to the program how veterans court had helped them.) The answers ranged from telling of a child’s birthday to a new job secured to good news after a doctor’s visit.
Herndon smiled as Sydney Williams, of Crystal River, the mother with her child now on her lap, approached the lectern. A lawyer in the room soon offered to hold the child while they engaged.
“You’re getting close to the end,” Herndon said to Williams, 32, an Army veteran of 2 years, who was before the judge for a domestic abuse case involving her boyfriend.
“That was hard,” replied the defendant, who had by then spent 638 days in the program.
Williams then told the judge that she was working as a babysitter, so she can stay at home with her three children, ages 2 to 10, and write a book about how trauma affects those serving in the military. Herndon was pleased and said that effort may be therapeutic for Williams.
After getting out of the military, Williams said, she had been in bad relationships with people who did not understand her struggles. “Vet court is a lot more helpful than just going to the V.A.,” she said. “There is support for us when no one else is there to support you.”
Williams completed veterans court on Dec. 15 and prosecutors dropped her charges.
A new veteran appears. Judge Herndon tells him he had failed his drug test that morning.
The room goes quiet as the man is arrested and referred to residential treatment, where he will be detoxified in a controlled environment. Despite his failed test, though, he was allowed to continue in the program and ordered to return to the courtroom on Zoom two weeks later.
Led out of the room in handcuffs, the man looks toward Herndon: “Thank you, your honor.”
Volunteer Mentors Giving Back
Alongside each veteran standing before the judge is someone in a blue shirt with a gold insignia: their volunteer mentor. Each volunteer is also a veteran and checks in with their assigned defendants between court appearances to offer guidance and support.
After four years in the Navy during the Vietnam War, Don Raymond, 77, worked for decades as a school teacher, then principal of Dr. N.H. Jones Elementary School and headmaster of Christ Christian School, both in Ocala. He retired three times before it stuck – in 2012, 2015 and 2018 – each time looking for a meaningful way to serve the community.
“I had a feeling that my life was not supposed to be gardening, traveling,” he said.
After veterans court-related classes and training, Raymond stands next to his mentees as they address the judge, discussing their progress, and how they keep in contact between court meetings. Veterans were a logical group for him to focus on, because society has trouble wanting to rehabilitate people who are rough around the edges, as veterans tend to be, he said.
That’s where the mentors step in. Raymond said discussions are about most aspects of life – everything from marriage counseling to reintegration into society after military service – all with the goal of helping troubled veterans cope better. “It’s never going to be normal,” he said, “but this program helps them cope with the issues you have.”
A graduation, and a new beginning
Michael Crandon, 68, who served 28 years in the Army with deployments to Kuwait and twice to Afghanistan, said the veterans program provided resources he didn’t know existed.
“I know where I’d be without it,” he told Herndon during a recent court appearance.
Crandon was arrested in June 2022 after a domestic battery incident. According to arrest records, he argued with his wife Jennifer while intoxicated early in the morning, threw a sandwich at her, closed a door on her arm and held her against a wall by her neck before letting her go.
When law enforcement arrived, Crandon grabbed his gun because “he did not want it taken from him,” records show. When he refused to drop the weapon, he was tased. “Nothing like getting tased three times, man – that hurts,” Crandon told the judge. “At least they didn’t shoot me.”
McNeloms visited with him while in custody and told him about the veterans treatment court.
“Being around my fellow veterans, and being able to talk the same kind of talk about the drugs, the alcohol, the memories, the suppression – all the things that we did. You know, it helped me out,” Crandon told the judge. “Golden: This whole operation you are running is golden.”
Herndon replied in kind: “I’m very pleased at your progress.”
Watch above: Michael Crandon accepts his veterans treatment court graduation in November in Ocala. (Sandra McDonald/WUFT News)
She then surprised him by saying, “You’re going to graduate today.” (He had not expected to do so for another two months.) The room erupted in cheers, and the judge told him to turn to the gallery for another surprise: His father, aunt and wife were sitting in the gallery. They each had snuck in while he was facing the judge. Brought to tears, Crandon listened in amazement as state prosecutors told Herndon they were prepared to drop the charges against him.
Herndon asked him to visit in the future to support other veterans going through the process.
Jennifer Crandon, 51, served 10 years in the Army as a combat medic instructor and married her husband in 2018. When Crandon fell from a tree earlier this year and required extensive medical care, she began working from home in March to support him. She said he would not have done well in a regular criminal court process; being with other veterans facing the same struggles mattered a lot.
“She’s been my support … from the time this thing happened,” her husband told WUFT News.
For her part, Herndon said in an interview that her time in the veterans court has “probably been one of the most rewarding experiences” she’s had working in the criminal justice system.
“We actually see results,” the judge said, “and see how people progress through the court system in a positive way, and how they benefit ultimately, and hopefully harness whatever demons or problems that they have. And that is, in my mind, truly what we are searching for in the system. And I don’t see that in other areas like I see it in veterans court.”