PTSD Veterans Swap Guilty Plea for Rehabiliatation

Full Article at: Veterans Suspected of Crimes Swap Guilty Pleas for Rehabilitation

SUMMARY
Tom Bearden reports on special courts that give veterans probation and treatment, especially for post-traumatic stress disorder, instead of prison sentences if they plead guilty to a crime.
LISTEN: MP3
Transcript

TOM BEARDEN: Nic Gray was a sergeant with the 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas. He was part of the Iraq troop surge in February 2007.

NIC GRAY, former U.S. soldier: We were just building COPs, which are the combat outposts, which is really what the surge was all about, was taking small neighborhoods and building little bases in them that are troubled, and then clearing and maintaining as well.


TOM BEARDEN: He returned to the States that fall, left the Army when his time was up, and moved to Colorado Springs to start a business. One night last October, he was on the phone talking with a buddy who served with him in Baghdad.

NIC GRAY: We were just kind of talking about our experiences, about, you know, our time over there. And that's pretty much the last thing that I remember. The next thing that I recall is coming to in an orange jumpsuit in county jail, charged with two felonies.

TOM BEARDEN: Gray, who suffers from PTSD, apparently had a flashback, and went on a rampage in his neighborhood, attacking a parked car, kicking in a neighbor's door, threatening the couple inside.

NIC GRAY: I was on a mission in my neighborhood, and I was clearing houses.

TOM BEARDEN: What do you mean?

NIC GRAY: Well, essentially, clearing a house is when you go ahead and you bust in the front door or side door, and you go inside to ensure that there's no, in this case, insurgents in there to go ahead and be able to harm you or your -- your -- your fellow soldiers as well."