LI's first 'veterans court' opens

In a quiet courtroom at the Suffolk County judicial complex in Central Islip Monday, a bailiff unlocked handcuffs that shackled an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran awaiting trial on gun and theft charges.

His hands momentarily freed, veteran Michael Gabriellini signed papers that put in motion a plan to divert him from jail and into a drug-treatment program designed to keep him from again running afoul of the law.

With the signing, Long Island's first "veterans court" opened for business, joining a judicial movement taking root in courthouses across the country.

Law enforcement and court officials who helped set up the court said veterans who are arrested often have psychological problems related to the battlefield, and are better treated with therapy than jail.

"We are going to do better than we did for veterans of previous wars," said Judge Judy Harris Kluger, chief of policy and planning for the New York State Unified Court System.

The court will be run by Suffolk District Court Judge John Toomey, a former Army infantryman who served in Vietnam. "I think I can bring a particular understanding to their problems," said Toomey.

In general, veterans who agree to plead guilty to nonviolent crimes and to submit to treatment for substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder or other issues that contributed to their criminal behavior can have their charges downgraded and their jail time waived.

Defendants who agree will receive court-supervised counseling and treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Northport.

Gabriellini faces charges that could have resulted in several years in jail, including grand larceny and felony gun possession, according to his lawyers and court officials. Gabriellini is expected to be freed Thursday, when the court is scheduled to approve his treatment plan.

Suffolk's is the seventh veterans court to open in New York State, Kluger said.

Acting Erie County Court Judge Robert Russell opened the nation's first veterans court on Jan. 1, 2009, in Buffalo. Of the 40 veterans who completed the program by last fall, none had been rearrested.

Queens opened a veterans court late last year. Joe Ingino, Nassau president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, is pressing Nassau officials to open one there.

"I'm concerned there is no veterans court in Nassau," Ingino said. "We have a lot of veterans who could benefit from this."