For William Von Steiger, the unlikely first step toward a better life began two years ago with a burning car.
Von Steiger, an Overland Park veteran who served a year as an Army paralegal specialist before his discharge in 2008, started the car fire during a particularly dark time, he said. “Coupled with drug and alcohol use and not knowing how else to deal with my emotions, it just was a really rough time,” he said. “I kind of lashed out at the world.”
But with the military service (he said he was honorably discharged for medical and mental health reasons), the non-violent nature of the crime and his marijuana use, Von Steiger was eligible for a special diversion court for veterans in Johnson County that has been widely praised as a way for veterans to get their lives in order.
The classes, the mentors, the counseling and medical help from the Veterans Administration helped Von Steiger manage the anger, stay sober and be a better parent, he said. He was among this year’s cohort of graduates of the county’s veterans treatment court.
“It’s almost like a gift they gave me in putting me through the program because I was kind of floundering in life and needed help but I didn’t know where to get it,” he said.
Johnson County was the first veterans treatment court in Kansas
Johnson County’s Veterans Treatment Court celebrated its 10th anniversary on Friday, March 6, with a gathering of alumni and the judges, staff and mentors who made it happen. It was the first court of its kind for veterans in Kansas. Now the state has six.
Lawton Nuss, retired chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, and other speakers remembered the pitch to open the court as a hard sell to state legislative and judicial authorities a decade ago. But it’s proved its worth, he said.
The latest graduation ceremony in January brought the total number of alumni to 88, and 13 are currently in the program. The program claims a 95% success rate, meaning 95% of its graduates never return to the criminal justice system.
The treatment court is intended to work with eligible service people on the root causes that brought them into the justice system, as an alternative to jail time.
Participants go through a year to a year and a half of classes on such things as effective communication and how to avoid repeating criminal behavior. They also get mental health counseling and help with medications through the VA.
“You’ve got to do a lot of drug testing. You’ve got to show up to court a lot and talk to the probation officer regularly,” Von Steiger said. The intensity of the class work eases a bit as the program progresses, he said. “But for the most part, you’re pretty busy with something at least five days a week.”
“Honestly the program is something I could have used a long time ago, prior to committing a crime,” Von Steiger said. “It’s just really helpful in all aspects of your life — getting along with people, learning how to regulate your emotions, letting things go that just aren’t important.”
Mentors and court staff laud its success
For the people who run the court, the outcomes have been rewarding as well.
Shawn Minihan, a Johnson County prosecutor, said the court has been a bright spot among court dockets that are often full of victims and families who can never be made whole through convictions.
“This is the only area of my job where at the end of the day something happy happens and that we make a huge and positive difference not only to the veteran’s life but to the families and community,” he said.
District Court Judge Kelly Ryan, who has occasionally filled in on the veterans court bench, remembers one of the participants who praised the program approaching him. “He said, ‘You guys have saved my life,’” Kelly said. “There’s nothing that you can wish for more as a judge than knowing that you helped somebody.”
Manny Peine, one of the program’s recent graduates, said he is one of those whose life has been saved.
Peine, of Mission, served as an Army infantryman from 2014 to 2016, and struggled with opioid addiction after being hurt in a bad car crash, he said.
“Honestly, at first everyone’s skeptical about a court-ordered program,” Peine said. “ But I found the more honest I was with myself and with them, the more ways they were able to help me overcome my personal barriers at the time.”
Peine’s beloved grandmother — “the one person I had in this world” — died as he went through the program. That was almost exactly a year ago, he said.
But the support from the people in the court program made it possible for Peine to get through it. “It saved my life, 100%.”
Veteran mentors are an important part of the program, for their advice to participants and their support at court hearings. Marine Veteran Darrel Dilley drove from Nashville, Tennessee, to attend the treatment court anniversary celebration, meeting up with his former mentor, Tom Letourneau, who Dilley hadn’t seen since he graduated the program in 2022.
The treatment court program made it possible for Dilley to improve his life and achieve six years of sobriety, he said.
Gardner resident Corey Schramm, also a 2022 graduate of the program, said mentors are one of the best aspects of the program. “They go through the whole process with you from the time you sign up to the time you’re done,” he said.
Schramm, who served three tours with the Army in Iraq, is now a case manager with Johnson County Mental Health department. He said his mentor often calmed him down when court requirements made him mad by saying, “Jungle rules.”
In other words, Schramm said, “you have to adapt to whatever the jungle throws at you.”
Keep reading: Overland Park combat veteran feels ‘redeemed’ by county Veterans Treatment Court program
