Loading…
Amended order establishing the felony-division Veterans' Treatment Court: eligibility, referral, VA verification, the three case types (pretrial diversion, post-adjudication probation condition, ROR condition on a pending VOP), and the minimum one-year participation.
• Amended Administrative Order 2013-08A replaces Administrative Order Veterans' Treatment Court – Felony Division 2013-08. • 1. A Veterans' Treatment Court shall be operational within the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Criminal Felony Division to hear cases involving defendants who are identified as a veteran, as defined in §1.01 Fla. Stat., or service member, as defined in §250.01 Fla. Stat., who suffers from a military service-related mental illness, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse disorder, or psychological problem who are eligible for services through Veterans Administration and who have been charged with a felony other than a felony listed in 948.06(8)(c) Florida Statute. Court approval will be considered upon motion of either party or the court's own motion. Veterans' Treatment Court may also hear cases in which a defendant is charged with a felony violation of probation with the consent of the Circuit judge of the criminal division to which the case is assigned. • 2. Referrals to the program may be made by any court, Department of Corrections, law enforcement, State Attorney, defense attorney, Veteran organization, mental health or substance abuse providers, or any other interested party. Admittance requires verification by the Veterans Administration that the defendant is entitled to receive services. • 3. Upon confirmation from the Veterans Administration that the defendant is entitled to receive veteran services for treatment, evaluation, or placement related to a behavioral health issue, the Court shall enter an order transferring the case to Veterans' Treatment Court and directing the clerk to place the case or cases on the Veterans' Treatment Court docket. • 4. There shall be three types of cases within Veterans Treatment Court: a. Pretrial Diversion: A defendant is eligible for a pretrial intervention program if he/she meets the requirements of §948.08(7)(a) Fla. Stat. Once the defendant has been deemed eligible for Veterans Administration services, he/she shall enter a plea of guilty or no contest and the sentencing shall be set off. The defendant and Veterans Treatment Court Judge shall sign the Veterans' Treatment Court agreement and the defendant shall be released on his/her own recognizance with the condition that he/she complies with the agreement. Upon successful completion of the Veteran's Treatment Court the plea will be withdrawn and the charges shall be dismissed. b. Post-Adjudication: If the defendant is not eligible for pretrial diversion, he/she may be ordered by the Circuit Criminal Judge to complete Veterans' Treatment Court as a special condition of probation pursuant to §948.21 Fla. Stat. c. Condition of ROR on pending Violation of Probation: If a defendant has a pending violation of probation, he/she may be released on his/her own recognizance by any judge with the condition that he/she participates in Veterans' Treatment Court. An admission shall be entered, and upon completion of the program, the admission will be withdrawn and the violation of probation shall be dismissed. • 5. Defendants accepted into the program will attend court hearings as ordered by the Veterans' Treatment Court Judge. The defendant shall participate in ongoing assessments, treatment and discharge planning. • 6. The Defendant shall participate in Veterans' Treatment Court until successful completion of discharge planning, with the minimum being one year, up to the statutory maximum.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: ba93bf55cbb2-prefixed (see source_documents custody row; 146,945 bytes; 3 pages — memo p.1, operative order pp.2-3, read in full). Born-scanned order from the 19th's named 14-scan OCR backlog (P1 task 47f5ab4e). Transcription method: page images read at 170 dpi with each quoted provision verified against the image; no raw machine OCR was published. Applicability 2026-09-09 (fix program 2026-09-09, Phase 5, audit M7): specific -> universal — the row binds every court in its state/circuit/county scope and names no court, judge or division. Transcribed verbatim from the court's born-scanned order (no text layer has ever existed publicly; the register PDF was live-fetched 2026-08-19, sha256-matched to the 2026-07 custody row, rasterized at 170 dpi, and each quoted provision was read and verified against the page image at transcription time); whitespace normalised only. The full scanned document remains in custody and is the controlling text. [moved from the text 2026-09-17]
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.