Brownwood News – Brown County Judge, Dr. Paul Lilly, updated local media Monday on a topic he had campaigned on in 2018, that being a veterans court.  “Before I took office, when I was out campaigning, it seemed like it was a monumental issue.  Everywhere I went, and at every one of the debates, I was asked would you be receptive to a veterans court,” Lilly said.

Now that he has been in office for a year, Judge Lilly said a veterans docket call, or a docket day, may be more appropriate, rather than a separate veterans court, to hear veterans who claim post traumatic stress disorder as an issue when charged with a misdemeanor offense.

Judge Lilly said creating a veterans court involves hiring a new judge, hiring staff and start-up money to get the office going.  “What I’d like to do, instead of having a veterans court, I would like to have a docket call or docket day or docket afternoon.”  Judge Lilly said he has proposed the docket call idea to the Attorney General’s Office.  “As soon as I hear back from them, I’ll brief the Commissioners on what I plan on doing.  Lilly said he would also send out a letter to defense attorneys letting them know if they have a client claiming PTSD as a direct cause of a criminal offense, if it’s a misdemeanor, they could request through the County Judge’s Office that the case be heard during a veterans docket.  Judge Lilly said he would preside over the cases at no additional cost to county taxpayers.

[adrotate group=”8″]

Judge Lilly made the following statement:

“I just want to follow up on a campaign promise I’d made before I was even elected, when I was campaigning for office.  It’s about the veterans court.  I probably get asked that more as I circulate around the county than I do just about anything else.  Based on the information that I can see so far, and I didn’t know this until I got into office, I don’t see that we have the need for a separate, free-standing veterans court.   Where I’m going with that – our local government code says if the Commissioners so choose they can create a whole new veterans court, with its own presiding judge.  I don’t necessarily think we need that but I still see a need to help our veterans.

Lilly continued with an explanation of a veterans court.

“What a veterans court is designed to do is not to excuse any type of criminal behavior on behalf of the veterans or anyone.  If issues related to post traumatic stress disorder is a direct cause or combat or other military connected disability – if that has a direct bearing, according to the plea of the defense attorney, if he believes that his client is directly affected by that, then we want to reach out and do everything we can to try and, not keep them out of the criminal justice system, because if they commit the crime, they’re going to be treated just like everyone else with regard to arrest.  What a veterans court does is it brings everyone in from the Center for Life Resources, our Veteran’s Administration, the defense attorney, the prosecuting attorney, it brings everybody to the table at the same time, and also probation.  They all sit down and they discuss the most appropriate punishment or corrective action that is going to help that veteran deal with the consequences of the crime they have potentially committed but also the ongoing issues of PTSD.”

Lilly said things still have to come together before the veterans docket is finalized.  He plans to visit with other elected officials during a training in March at Texas Tech Law School to further discuss the topic.