Lou Olivera; a veterans’ judge
The Washington Post reports about the night that District Court Judge Lou Olivera, in Cumberland County, North Carolina, spent the night in a jail cell. He had just sentenced 20-year Army veteran, Joseph Serna, to 24-hours in the local lock up for lying about a court-monitored urinalysis test;
Serna has fought to stay sober, appearing before Olivera 25 times to have his progress reviewed. He confessed to Olivera that he lied about a recent urine test last week, according to WRAL.
In response, Olivera sentenced Serna to one day in jail.
The judge drove Serna to the jail in a neighboring county.
From the Fayetteville Observer;
Olivera had hoped to have Serna serve his time in a holding cell at the Fayetteville Police Department, but Chief Harold Medlock told the judge the cell is now used for storage.
“But I’m friends with the chief of police in Lumberton and called him, and he said he would call the Sheriff’s Office and they were willing to do it,” Medlock says.
Serna reported for his punishment, where he was met by the judge.
“When Joe first came to turn himself in, he was trembling,” says Olivera, a veteran, too, who served in the Gulf War. “I decided that I’d spend the night serving with him.”
And that’s what happened – the judge spent Serna’s night in jail with him;
Mostly, from five in the afternoon on April 13 until 6:30 a.m. the next day, the judge and the veteran talked about their respective military service, Serna’s post-traumatic stress disorder from three tours of duty in Afghanistan and how the inmate could turn around his downward spiral that had resulted in a driving-while-impaired charge and other serious traffic offenses.
According to the judge’s website, he is a veteran of Desert Storm and he did what I’ve been saying that we should do – veteran PTSD and suicide is “our problem” and we deal with it better than anyone else. We all have an opportunity at one point or another to reach out to the folks who need help and no one understands better than we understand.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the Washington post link.
Category: Veterans in the news
As in at least one other state, first time DUI one night in the pokey; followed by an undetermined amount of time being allowed to drive only to and from work in addition to Dr. visit or any legally required appointment. Second DUI, loss of license for one year minimum, seems to me it was a 30 day jail sentence in addition to a $500 fine. Third DUI, license revoked for life, one year in prison and a hefty fine which would take years to pay off. That would presumably cause a person to shop for walking shoes and to consider remaining sober. But there are people who can not help themselves from certain addictions, be it genetic or what ever. As long as they are not driving or injuring anyone, that does not seem to be a problem with society. One more DUI and about five years of prison sobriety would no doubt alter one’s desire to get behind a wheel. If a monkey on your back can’t be kicked, you’ll always one way or another get your need fulfilled. Going behind a wheel risking another five or ten years in prison would hopefully make the public safer. If courts were to enforce the sentence, it seems like that would be a good start if nothing else.
Judge Olivera is a stand up guy. Hope Mr. Serna gets the message, and the help he needs.
Judge Olivera definitely went above and beyond. Kudos to him.
A very noble act by Judge Olivera… and hopefully Mr. Serna learns from this.
This is indeed the sort of thing we should all be doing – helping each other. Well, most of us here have probably done/are doing our part in helping other vets however we can.
Kudos to Judge Olivera.
Jesus, I hope the assholes at The VA read this story. That judge needs a commendation. In a time of activist judges pushing a social agenda and legislating from the bench men like Judge Olivera who really care about people are few and far between.
An excellent point. The VA gets paid to help veterans. This judge did it for free.
His picture should be up in every VA building and office in the country just to remind people how lazy and worthless they are and that they need to earn their paycheck. There are plenty who do their job, but if the rest did theirs, we wouldn’t have such a high rate of bullshit.
Sorry but when I read the article my firsttime thought was…did he really serve?
Mr. Olivera sounds to be a standup guy. Maybe I’m a little jaundiced (see ocean12 post), but I’m hoping it wasn’t a PR stunt. If not, maybe he could find a position within the VA. That would be a nice departure from some of the buttwipes within the VA who have made headlines in the past few years.
I have spent many years working with homeless, drug and alcohol addicted men, women, Veterans and Civilians. I am constantly amazed at how difficult it is to kick those life threatening addictions and how much destruction surrounds anyone dealing with it as a victim or as a familymember. Addictions are not caused by PTSD, but dealing with that or other difficult mental or physical stresses can exacerbate it exponentially if the individual doesn’t have the right tools to deal with it. It is proven that alcoholism is some sort of a genetic predisposition to the carnage that is carried by about 8% of people in general. This disease is truly the embodiment of Satan himself. We wouldn’t need a criminal justice system if this disease wasn’t so prominent. Numerous Native American tribes have a stronger penchant for the disease of alcoholism as evidenced by the horrible condition of many reservation dwellers. The government has been trying to deal with it as best as they know how… Which, is totally fruitless, expensive & frustrating… The government has no idea what the hell to do with them, you can sit and talk to them until hell freezes over, the cows come home and oblowme appoints Judge Jeanine Pirro to the Supreme Court. Both people will think that everything is fine after that talk and everyone will be happy with the result up to the time when the pot boils over once again. It could be be the very next day, or even a few hours after that talk the alcoholic/addict may find themselves back in their cups and running up another horrible tally of hearts broken, promises broken, lies told and Lord only knows what else can happen in that short period of time. The true disease of alcoholism is a spiritual disease with no known cure no matter what is tried. There is only a reprieve, a daily reprieve for the condition and it must be renewed every single day. An alcoholic has a huge hole in their soul and no matter how much sex, drugs and rock and roll they… Read more »
“Judge Olivera also presides over the county’s first Veteran Treatment Court (only the second in the State of North Carolina). The Veteran Treatment Court in Cumberland County is unique in which all of the key team members are Veterans themselves to include the Judge, Prosecutor, Primary Defense Attorney, the Program Coordinator and even the Courtroom Clerk.”
That is very cool. I’d like to see some smart ass appear in that courtroom and try to BS that crew.