Drug court celebrates sobriety of two new grads

Vernon County Prosecutor Lynn Ewing III asks Judge James Bickel to dismiss all charges "with prejudice" against the most recent graduates of drug court. When a judge dismisses charges "with prejudice" against a defendant the person can never be tried for those specific charges again.

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

With the addition of the two latest graduates, 14 people have graduated from Vernon County Drug Court. A celebration in the second floor courtroom, filled with family and friends, was presided over by Judge James Bickel Tuesday evening for the latest two graduates, a husband and wife couple, who due to a request from Judge Bickel will remain anonymous -- confidentiality is granted to participants as part of the program.

The invocation for the ceremony was given by the Rev. Bill Cox, of the First Baptist Church and Ann Wilson of the state courts administrator's office was on hand to give some words of advice at the request of the graduates. "This is the first time I've been requested," Wilson joked. "I'm glad to be here."

Wilson said the man graduating had designed a logo for the program during the first few months of his participation. "We used the logo for last year's conference and have been using it since then," Wilson said. "(He) said that his inspiration for the logo was a baseball diamond."

Drug Court, a diversionary program that offers a chance to start anew to first-time offenders facing court action on drug-related crimes, is modeled after a nationwide program that seems to be successful in rehabilitating those involved with drug-related criminal activity.

"Drug court is all about making someone's life better," Bickel said. "The pay off for those of us on the committee are the hugs we get. We get hugs from the mothers of our graduates, we get hugs from the children of our graduates and we get hugs from our graduates themselves."

The couple received praise for their efforts from Bickel and others who noted the hard work they put in to achieve their results in near record time. "(He) went through the quickest of anyone in just 18 months," Bickel said. "Every report, from the first on, had the same comment, that he was focused on success and was sincere. (He) went right through the program without a sanction at all. He has 579 days of sobriety."

"(Her) story is just about word for word like (his)." Bickel said that "When you see the changes in their lives it's a great feeling."

Bickel pointed out that the couple had a daughter that was born while the mother was in the program. "We can't emphasize enough the benefits of this program are especially important to the drug free babies that result from the mothers' participation," Bickel said. "(The couple's baby) is the third to be born drug-free because the mother was in the program, that's a great thing."