Judge Brockett congratulates Frank
MIDDLETOWN – The City of Middletown’s Drug Court Program held its graduation ceremony for the new veteran’s track Tuesday, featuring the first group of military veterans to successfully complete the program.
Drug Court, itself, in Middletown has been around for 10 years and has been used as an alternative to regular criminal prosecution for qualifying drug offenders. Basically, it is a court supervised rehabilitation program. Although the program is not new, the veteran’s track is and has been around for only a year.
“The District Attorney’s Office is now approving certain, select criminal cases, where the defendant is a U.S. veteran, and offering them an additional opportunity to get into treatment, rather than be processed through the standard criminal justice system,” said Middletown City Court Judge Steven Brockett.
Frank, a graduate of the inaugural veteran’s track and Marine veteran of the Persian Gulf War, said the help he received from the veteran mentors, Judge Brockett and Case Manager Melissa Ortquist, was invaluable to him.
“They gave me suggestions and it was up to me to take them, but once I took the suggestions, better things started happening. To this day, a week from today, I’ll have nine months clean,” Frank said. “I never thought that would be possible because I’d been drinking ever since I was 18, non-stop, and when I was in the Marine Corps, it was encouraged. That’s what we did. We did what we had to do but in our own spare time we drank, and it was legal to do so. I grew up with parents, they were alcoholics too, so it was the norm for me.”
Nelson Sintra, another graduate of the inaugural veteran’s track, an Air Force veteran, agreed with Frank regarding the program’s value to veteran’s with addictions and added that he believes the program helped keep him alive.
“I think it’s valuable,” Sintra said. “Like I said, a lot of people are dying out there, and the support that you get here with everybody, with Catholic Charities, with the veterans, it’s monumental really. It helps a lot of people and if it wasn’t for this, I’d probably be in jail or dead.”
Both Frank and Nelson Sintra said one of the main issues, when it came to their addictions and recovery, was the military mindset of being reluctant to ask for help. They both, along with the veteran mentors and Middletown Drug Court, urge veterans who need help, to seek out veteran addiction services because recovery is not a solo mission, and the support network they need is there waiting for them.
