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Courts offer help to veterans in trouble with law
By Todd Ruger
Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Former Army Spc. Travis Pendergrass cannot forget what happened in Iraq, when he and other soldiers fired on a car speeding toward their roadside checkpoint.
Instead of an attacker, it turned out to be a father rushing his family home before curfew. The man's 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter were killed.
Although Pendergrass never saw the dead children, he is haunted by what happened; since returning to the U.S., he has been unable to keep a job and was even arrested.
"I would see those children every time I put on the night vision goggles," said Pendergrass, a father of five who is currently on house arrest on a charge of fleeing from an officer who tried to stop his car.
Post-traumatic stress disorder or brain injuries can cause some returning veterans like Pendergrass to have trouble controlling impulses or holding down a job, which can lead to run-ins with the law, experts say.
A new project in Manatee and Sarasota county courts will identify veterans from the latest Iraq war and the Afghanistan war when they are arrested, then link them to social programs that can help them avoid legal trouble in the future.
Getting the veterans the help they need can prevent them from becoming repeat offenders on minor charges like DUI, substance abuse or in conflicts that lead to assault or battery, 12th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth said.
"We want to intervene as early as possible," said Haworth, a 23-year Army veteran who spent time in Iraq during Desert Storm.
Haworth was a prosecutor when Vietnam veterans returned home in the 1970s, and says the mental scars from war were not well understood.
"We didn't handle it very well back then," Haworth said.
This project, boosted by a $50,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, will create a special path through the court system for veterans.
Pendergrass, 28, said he now reflects on the checkpoint incident and realizes how much it changed him. He soon lost his reputation as one of the best tank crewmen.
He kept seeing the children. He broke out in an unexplained skin problem that led to a medical discharge.
"I thought, I'm fine now, I'm out of the military, it will be fine," Pendergrass said.
But the dead children kept appearing when he got to Bradenton in 2004, when he was with one of his own children or while driving down the road.
Pendergrass says his family described him as distant. He went through 12 jobs in two years. He got a divorce. He went to a Veterans Affairs homeless program when he had nowhere to live.
"I thought, this is the new me," Pendergrass said.
He started selling marijuana, and he got arrested for it and fleeing from an officer trying to arrest him. He spent five months in the Manatee County Jail.
When he went to his mother's house after his release and saw police, he fled again, this time right to the Veterans Affairs office to get medicine.
He now serves weekends in the jail, and is trying to find work as a photographer. He gets 100 percent disability pay from the VA.
One of his best friends from high school who also fought in the Iraq war is in the jail awaiting trial.
His friend, who he did not want to name for fear it could interfere with the man's benefits, has withdrawn from relationships. He never drank before the military, but now struggles with alcohol. He is accused of threatening someone with a gun.
"I've seen a major change in him," Pendergrass said.
The court system does not track how many veterans from those wars have been arrested, but statistics show that about 2,200 veterans from the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars are receiving counseling services in the 12th Circuit.
Former Marine Sgt. Brandon Paulson, who lives in Sarasota after serving in the Iraq war, says many of the veterans he knows need help.
Some break speeding laws in their cars to match the adrenaline rush of combat. Paulson says he does not do that, but he often feels a need to protect the public like he did in Iraq, and will patrol the streets of Sarasota.
Paulson has the same problem as many veterans with trouble readjusting: he cannot find work.
"They're here, there's no doubt about it," Paulson said.
The new court program could begin in March.
This story appeared in print on page BN1 Copyright © 2010 HeraldTribune.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
I'm curious to see how this works out in the long run. We definitely need to do something but I can see people seeing this as a copout. *Sits back and watches*
Courts offer help to veterans in trouble with law
By Todd Ruger
Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Former Army Spc. Travis Pendergrass cannot forget what happened in Iraq, when he and other soldiers fired on a car speeding toward their roadside checkpoint.
Instead of an attacker, it turned out to be a father rushing his family home before curfew. The man's 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter were killed.
Although Pendergrass never saw the dead children, he is haunted by what happened; since returning to the U.S., he has been unable to keep a job and was even arrested.
"I would see those children every time I put on the night vision goggles," said Pendergrass, a father of five who is currently on house arrest on a charge of fleeing from an officer who tried to stop his car.
Post-traumatic stress disorder or brain injuries can cause some returning veterans like Pendergrass to have trouble controlling impulses or holding down a job, which can lead to run-ins with the law, experts say.
A new project in Manatee and Sarasota county courts will identify veterans from the latest Iraq war and the Afghanistan war when they are arrested, then link them to social programs that can help them avoid legal trouble in the future.
Getting the veterans the help they need can prevent them from becoming repeat offenders on minor charges like DUI, substance abuse or in conflicts that lead to assault or battery, 12th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth said.
"We want to intervene as early as possible," said Haworth, a 23-year Army veteran who spent time in Iraq during Desert Storm.
Haworth was a prosecutor when Vietnam veterans returned home in the 1970s, and says the mental scars from war were not well understood.
"We didn't handle it very well back then," Haworth said.
This project, boosted by a $50,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, will create a special path through the court system for veterans.
Pendergrass, 28, said he now reflects on the checkpoint incident and realizes how much it changed him. He soon lost his reputation as one of the best tank crewmen.
He kept seeing the children. He broke out in an unexplained skin problem that led to a medical discharge.
"I thought, I'm fine now, I'm out of the military, it will be fine," Pendergrass said.
But the dead children kept appearing when he got to Bradenton in 2004, when he was with one of his own children or while driving down the road.
Pendergrass says his family described him as distant. He went through 12 jobs in two years. He got a divorce. He went to a Veterans Affairs homeless program when he had nowhere to live.
"I thought, this is the new me," Pendergrass said.
He started selling marijuana, and he got arrested for it and fleeing from an officer trying to arrest him. He spent five months in the Manatee County Jail.
When he went to his mother's house after his release and saw police, he fled again, this time right to the Veterans Affairs office to get medicine.
He now serves weekends in the jail, and is trying to find work as a photographer. He gets 100 percent disability pay from the VA.
One of his best friends from high school who also fought in the Iraq war is in the jail awaiting trial.
His friend, who he did not want to name for fear it could interfere with the man's benefits, has withdrawn from relationships. He never drank before the military, but now struggles with alcohol. He is accused of threatening someone with a gun.
"I've seen a major change in him," Pendergrass said.
The court system does not track how many veterans from those wars have been arrested, but statistics show that about 2,200 veterans from the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars are receiving counseling services in the 12th Circuit.
Former Marine Sgt. Brandon Paulson, who lives in Sarasota after serving in the Iraq war, says many of the veterans he knows need help.
Some break speeding laws in their cars to match the adrenaline rush of combat. Paulson says he does not do that, but he often feels a need to protect the public like he did in Iraq, and will patrol the streets of Sarasota.
Paulson has the same problem as many veterans with trouble readjusting: he cannot find work.
"They're here, there's no doubt about it," Paulson said.
The new court program could begin in March.
This story appeared in print on page BN1 Copyright © 2010 HeraldTribune.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
I'm curious to see how this works out in the long run. We definitely need to do something but I can see people seeing this as a copout. *Sits back and watches*
