Willoughby Municipal Court Veterans Treatment Court

Willoughby Municipal Court, which serves Willoughby, Eastlake, Kirtland, Wickliffe, Willowick and nearby communities on the west end of Lake County, created its Veterans Treatment Court in December 2020; Judge Marisa L. Cornachio presides. It was the 29th veterans docket certified by the Supreme Court of Ohio and graduated its first class in August 2022. The Common Pleas Court has no veterans docket of its own. Who can enter, under Local Rule 2.8. A veteran of the U.S. military or a currently serving member, with a charge pending in Willoughby Municipal Court or elsewhere in Lake County; a diagnosis of substance dependence or a mental health disorder, including PTSD, traumatic brain injury or sexual trauma; probation of at least a year or a pre-sentence investigation; eligibility for community control; a medium or high risk score on the Ohio Risk Assessment System (or repeat offending); and eligibility for services through the VA clinic, the county Veterans Service Commission or a Vet Center. Excluded are anyone with a prior sexually oriented conviction, a record of failing probation or an earlier veterans court, pending charges that could lead to a violent or sexually oriented felony or drug trafficking, or a severe mental illness or developmental limit that would prevent completing the three phases. The requirement of eligibility for VA, Vet Center or commission services means the discharge matters: each has its own test. Volunteer veteran mentors, including from Sub Zero Mission, support the participants.