Judge Patterson at Pachyderm
photo by Hannah Campbell
Division III Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson fleshed out Hamilton County’s new Veterans Treatment Court Monday night at Champy’s in East Ridge, where he spoke to the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club.
About 10 years in the making, the program was announced in December by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, who funded a case manager to administer the court.
“I’m especially grateful to Mayor Wamp,” Judge Patterson said. “That puts us way ahead.”
The county has more military veterans than most, Judge Patterson said: 23,000, or seven percent of the population.
The county Veterans Services Office, led by Chuck Alsobrook, has been expanded as well, he said.
Veterans treatment court serves to unify and maximize the county’s dozen or so services for veterans, and loops in private organizations, too, which Judge Patterson called “heroes.”
He said many military veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome or a brain injury, causing them to lose control in normal situations.
“It’s no real surprise that a lot of them end up in court,” Judge Patterson said.
“That doesn’t excuse what they did,” he said. “It certainly explains it.”
The support network focuses on a veteran’s issue, such as staying on medication.
“Suddenly we don’t have a criminal problem with them anymore,” Judge Patterson said.
Judge Patterson said the court has had many advocates since 2015, with central formation from General Sessions Court Judge Gary Starnes and retired Air Force Colonel Chris Dooley.
Col. Dooley founded Hamilton County Mentors 4 Veterans in 2016 and was awarded the 2023 Col. Steve Strobridge Legislative Award by the Chattanooga Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.
Their effort stalled during the pandemic, but Judge Patterson’s election to the bench in 2022 greased the wheels.
“Guess what,” he said. “People started returning my phone calls. Basically, we got the band back together again.”
He said medical doctors, psychologists and home communities certainly have come a long way from the shell shock or battle fatigue discourse that surfaced after World War I, and veterans and police no longer wait 30 years to discuss their mental health, he said.
While veterans and police have paved the way to break the taboo, Judge Patterson said that firefighters are still marginalized.
“There’s only so many times you can pull a dead body out of a car before you take it home with you,” he said.
A member of the audience asked Judge Patterson how he copes with graphic images presented as evidence in murder cases.
“The way that I’ve dealt with it is to focus on the legal significance,” he said. “There are no photos that are introduced for shock value.”
Judge Patterson praised District 11 for hiring dedicated prosecutors for gang, child abuse and domestic violence crimes, and he helped establish the mental health court and juvenile court.
These specializations help get to the heart of the matter: psychology, he said.
The UTC psychology major said psychology and law overlap in murder cases. From lethal injection to walking free, “It all deals with the frame of mind,” he said.
At-risk youth today have “present” traumatic stress disorder, he said.