Roy Exum: A Judge's Night Behind Bars

  • Friday, May 27, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum
There is very little doubt that retired Army Sergeant Joe Serna has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after serving three tours as a Green Beret in Afghanistan. Once he barely avoided being blown up by a hidden IED and then there was another terrifying brush with a suicide bomber.
But the worst was when a truck he was in slid off the roadway into a canal. “It was like a can. It was really insulated and it rolled into a river.
We were locked in the river for 45 minutes. By the time they recovered the vehicle, I was the sole survivor. Everyone else passed away.”
Trapped, Serna said he could feel the water rising over his feet, then his knees. Steadily it moved up his chest and stopped only when it reached his chin. Since then the Army veteran has been terrified of being trapped in confining spaces. As he has fought his demons, about a year ago he was caught driving drunk in Fayetteville, N.C.
Fayetteville, you will remember, is right next to 251 square miles of land better known as Fort Bragg. That is why brilliant minds in Cumberland County created a Veteran’s Treatment Court to offer counselling and mentors to help soldiers such as the now-retired Serna when they make poor, non-violent choices in life.
Part of Serna’s treatment was that he could not touch nor consume alcohol. Last month a urine test proved positive. He lied about it at first but when the test came back hot, he tearfully admitted it. That was when both Judge Lou Olivera and the remorseful Serna knew what a parole violation would mean. “I gave Joe a night in jail because he had to be held accountable," the judge said.
Serna recalled being walked to the jail cell. "When I walked into the jail cell, and they closed the door behind me, I started feeling this anxiety," Serna told a CBS reporter. "It came back -- a flashback."
But within seconds, this just ahead of the lurking demons, the jailer returned leading Judge Olivera to the cell. The judge had a meatloaf his wife had baked and some vegetables. And his tooth brush. So as the jailer then locked the two men in the cell and walked away, Joe Serna and Judge Lou Olivera talked throughout the night. Yes, this happened. The judge had himself locked up too.
“We ate meatloaf and we talked about a lot of things," Serna said. “We talked about our families and … well, the walls didn't exist anymore. He brought me back to North Carolina from being in a truck in Afghanistan."
Judge Olivera, a Gulf War veteran, explained simply, “It was the best experience we could make of the situation and I am glad we did it together.”
Last week the Veteran’s Treatment Court had a graduation exercise and Judge Olivera told Sgt. Serna he didn’t want to see him again unless it was outside the courtroom and a jail cell. Joe Serna answered, “I won’t let you down. Ever.”
This Monday, when we celebrate our fallen heroes and honor those who have made our country what it is today, stand a little straighter when you salute Gulf War veteran Lou Olivera, a judge in Fayetteville, N.C. He deserves our awe.
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“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”  -- Saint Teresa of Avila
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