Shelby County Veterans Court

Shelby County Veterans Court, opened in 2012, was the first veterans court in Tennessee. It is a judicially supervised treatment programme for veterans whose substance use, dependency or serious mental health problems appear to have contributed significantly to their arrest or conviction. It runs under the state framework described in the Tennessee entry on veterans treatment courts and is one of the six veterans courts funded by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. The court. General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Christian Johnson presides; Judge Bill Anderson led the court from its opening. It sits on the lower floor of 201 Poplar Avenue in Division 15. Jerry Easter is the programme director; the office is 201 Poplar, Room 1-35, (901) 222-3703. Getting in. A defense attorney or the veteran files the court's entry request with the docket number and charge. Case managers check eligibility and send the case to the District Attorney's office, which takes one to three weeks. The prosecutor must approve, for both the releasing court and the Veterans Court, and unless the veteran is sentenced to the programme the consent of the prosecutor, defense counsel, the veteran and the referring judge or Veterans Court judge is needed. Staff review applications on Wednesdays and new participants enter on the second and fourth Thursdays. Bring a DD-214 if you have one. When it opened the court excluded DUI and certain weapons charges; its pages publish no current exclusion list, so ask. What it asks. A treatment plan with VA and community providers, random drug testing, court appearances weekly or every other week at first and monthly later, and mentoring by a veteran volunteer. A positive test leads to a sanction or a change of plan rather than automatic removal. When the court opened, its judge described participation as a form of probation under the criminal charges, with the charges to be dismissed on successful completion; the outcome for a given case is whatever the plea or diversion agreement provides. The county pays for the court's drug testing and recovery housing under contracts the Commission approved in 2025.