to Care for Him Who shall have Borne the Battle: The Recent Development of Veterans Treatment Courts in America

INTRODUCTION (1) When Owen Flaherty returned home from war, his family and coworkers described him as detached and angry, his mind would trick him into seeing enemies firing upon him with guns, and his violent episodes resulted in the police being called to his home on numerous occasions. (2) When Nic Gray returned home, he felt "numb and disconnected," was haunted by nightmares, and one night broke down a stranger's front door, smelling of alcohol and shouting gibberish about the military. (3) Their stories of returning home from combat are remarkably similar--but they are separated by more than a century. Owen Flaherty was a Union veteran of the Civil War who returned home in 1865 and was eventually committed to the Indiana Hospital for the Insane in 1876. (4) Nic Gray served in an armored battalion in Iraq and returned home in 2007. (5) In December 2009, his case was one of the first transferred to the new "Veterans Court" in El Paso County, Colorado. (6) In January, he pleaded guilty to trespassing and received a two-year deferred sentence contingent upon completion of treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), community service, restitution, and a letter of apology to his victims. (7)