COURT HOUSE – The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office has a diversion program it operates in conjunction with the courts and Department of Veterans Affairs that helps military veterans avoid criminal prosecution.
According to literature available from the Prosecutor’s Office, veterans who have been charged with petty or non-violent crimes, have a diagnosed mental health condition, or are in need of drug rehabilitation, and have a military discharge higher than dishonorable, might be eligible for the VDP. Some simple assault cases might be considered.
David Shutter is a military veteran and works as a community relations specialist with the CMC Prosecutor’s Office. He has had clients come into VDP charged with petty theft, or who were involved in road rage incidents, for example, but no serious assaults.
“No violent crimes,” Shutter said. “We’ve had individuals who had controlled substances on them, but also had the mental health issue requirements that met the eligibility VDP, so they went through treatment for substances as well as treatment for mental health.”
Shutter said the eligibility for the VDP was intended to be as broad as possible. Most generally, he said, service members will have a DD–214, which is the report of separation from the military form. Shutter said basically everyone who served on active duty, or who was in the reserves or National Guard and were mobilized somewhere in the world, will have a DD-214. In some cases, where a reservist or National Guard member has not deployed somewhere,their enlistment or discharge documents can be used as well.
Shutter said the veteran’s discharge must be above dishonorable. Those will include an honorable discharge, or a general under honorable conditions, which includes medical discharges. Quite often, Shutter said, those with a discharge for medical reasons go right into VA care. There are also “other–than–honorable” and dishonorable discharges. Shutter said alcoholism is one of the most common reasons for an other-than-honorable discharge, and normally these people will be eligible for the VDP.
“These people will be eligible because that’s the very nature of VDP – helping people that are having problems with mental health, substance abuse, things of that nature,” Shutter said.
“The caveat is the program gears almost entirely towards mental health, but substance abuse is almost always going to be part of that.”
Shutter said any serious charge is going to be a disqualifier for VDP, including any type of aggravated assault;anything that’s second-degree or above; generally anything that involves weapons; any type of large narcotic possession or any type of narcotics distribution.
“Even simple assault may possibly be considered. It depends on the conditions,” Shutter said.
According to Shutter, often in simple assault cases, there can be emotional or mental issues that contributed to the offense. He said it’s an issue of looking at who has minor offenses and who might possibly have a mental health condition, and how military service might have contributed to that.
Shutter said there would never be a lot of people in the VDP because the level of crime in Cape May County is not that severe and the criteria for the VDP will eliminate some.
“But in the cases where the clients do meet the criteria,” he said, “it is paramount to get them into a program for rehabilitation and treatment, instead of just prosecuting and incarcerating them, which could potentially just make them into a worse offender later on.”
He said this is the core mission of every diversion program.
“This one focuses on veterans,” Shutter said.
Shutter said all 21 counties in New Jersey operate a veterans’ court.He said the prosecutor of each county has the discretion to design a VDP to suit their offender demographics. In Cape May County the focus is on mental health, however, some counties focus on substance abuse because they already have a separate mental health diversion court.
“I can’t tell you what each county in New Jersey has, but I’m sure a lot of them are probably mental health and substance at the same time,” Shutter said. “We already have a functioning recovery court for people with drug issues.”
Shutter said the VDP partners officially with the VA. When they are in court there is the assistant prosecutor, who is essentially the director of the program, the presiding judge, and a VA representative from the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Northfield, who appears in court via Zoom.
Shutter said the veteran participant goes through an assessment process with a licensed clinical social worker and they will be referred to the VA for treatment for mental health or substance abuse, depending on the result of the evaluation. Shutter said mental health is a blanket term that encompasses any type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety disorder that can be attributed to military service. He said if it is already documented from military records, that is considered an excellent diagnosis of mental health condition.
Shutter said there are a couple of steps involved in getting into the program. The application requires the DD-214, medical records, and a mental health diagnosis. With that, the prosecutor will have the veteran come to court and be signed into the program.
“The veteran will sign an actual contract and will agree to a pretty wide-ranging list of terms. It’s not simply astay-at-home and don’t-get-in-trouble program. It’s a fairly intrusive rehabilitation program. And you’re going to have regular meetings with your VA with your counselors, therapists, and with us as well to monitor your progress,” Shutter said.
Shutter said after completing the program the veteran should have an assortment of tools and resources to help them manage their conditions and problems. They will be plugged into the VA and VA services. They also can be connected with veteran groups that can offer peer support. One of the major points of programs, Shutter said, is mentoring. Ideally, he said, every VDP participant gets assigned a mentor volunteer – a veteran who‘s gone through training to be a support member in the VDP program. The program asks that the participant and mentor have contact at least once a week.
“The best way to equate it to is like a sponsor for AA. That’s a peer mentor, not law enforcement, not a member of the court, you can call themabout your problems, things of that nature. And ideally, they’re there to help you succeed in the program,” Shutter said.
“And we need more of them. I don’t need to have 100 mentors, but I need more than four,” he said.
Shutter said the program would like to pair participants with mentors who are about the same age and served in the same military branch.
The largest benefit is when participants complete the program successfully, the prosecutor drops the charges and the indictment is canceled, and it’s automatically expunged.
“It’s therefore just like getting a not guilty. It’s like it never happened,”Shutter said.
Shutter is a New Jersey nativewho enlisted in the Army right out of high school. After his enlistment, he graduated from Camden County College and later Temple andended up back in the military with a commission in the Navy.
He initially flew fixed–wing aircraft for a year, then flew helicopters for a year, before being transferred to the reserves. He worked in retail management for a couple of years and through the reserves was able to get active duty assignments, working in recruiting and human resources, In 2014 he was mobilized and flew a helicopter drone off a frigatein the Mediterranean.
After that deployment, he went back to reserve status and was based out of Baltimore and was eventually deployed to Bahrainfor training as part of a maritime watch unitwhen the Afghanistan evacuation happened. He was involved with the handling of refugees who were flown to the airbase in Bahrain to the airbase. Shutter retired in November andwas hired by the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office asa community relations specialist for the Veterans Diversion Program.
Anyone interested in becoming a VDP program mentor should contact Shutter at dshutter@cmcpros.net.
Thoughts? Questions? Contact the author, Christopher South at csouth@cmcherald.com, or call 609-886-8600 ext. 128.
