Twelfth Judicial Circuit: No DeSoto Veterans Court; Transfer to Manatee or Sarasota

Florida lets courts with criminal jurisdiction run veterans treatment courts under section 394.47891; see the Florida entry. The Twelfth Judicial Circuit (DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota Counties) has two, and its Veterans Treatment Court page gives contacts for Manatee and Sarasota only; see the Manatee and Sarasota County entries for those courts. In DeSoto County. The circuit's only problem-solving court in DeSoto is the DeSoto Drug Court before Judge Guy Flowers. It began in 2018 as the DeSoto County Case Management Court, which "included principles and treatment methods associated with our state's existing Veterans, Drug, DUI, Mental Health" and other treatment courts under one umbrella, and in May 2025 it was renamed the DeSoto County Drug Court. It takes a non-violent felony or any misdemeanour with a substance use, mental health or co-occurring disorder, not drug sales, in five phases over six to eighteen months, and it is not a veterans court. The transfer route. Section 910.035(5) says a person eligible for a problem-solving court, including a veterans treatment court, "shall, upon request by the person or a court, have the case transferred to a county other than that in which the charge arose" if the person agrees and the trial court's and the receiving court's representatives both agree. The circuit's veterans courts ask that the person "served or is currently serving in a branch of the United States Armed Forces" and be charged with a non-violent felony (misdemeanours case by case, no drug dealing), with no discharge test. Ask defence counsel to raise the transfer; Manatee's programme office is (941) 749-3670 and Sarasota's (941) 861-8107.