"The Attorney's Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Court" Helps Pennsylvania Law Students and Lawyers Counsel Vets
In a move to strengthen Allegheny County Veterans Court, the district attorney's office said on Wednesday it's donating 10 copies of The Attorney's Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Court to Duquesne University law students who will help a supervising attorney defend veterans in the program. Link to full story...
Scars of Service: Brock Hunter Profiled by St. Cloud Times' 4-Part Series
They seem like an odd couple, in both appearance and experience. One was a reconnaissance scout who spent 18 months in the Korean DMZ 20 years ago, never shot at and never having to shoot anybody.
Meet Brock Hunter, a hulking lawyer from Minneapolis whose practice focuses on helping veterans who’ve run into legal problems. The other survived numerous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, retiring with almost 20 years of active duty service, most of it in the secretive special operations world. Meet Hector Matascastillo, a chiseled native of Guatemala who earned his social work license after his military service and dedicates a majority of his practice to service members. Link to full story...
Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles
“Brockton D. Hunter, a criminal defense lawyer in Minneapolis, told colleagues in a recent lecture at the Minnesota State Bar Association that society should try harder to prevent veterans from self-destructing.”
“To truly support our troops, we need to apply our lessons from history and newfound knowledge about PTSD to help the most troubled of our returning veterans,” Mr. Hunter said. “To deny the frequent connection between combat trauma and subsequent criminal behavior is to deny one of the direct societal costs of war and to discard another generation of troubled heroes.”" Link to full article.
St. Cloud Times Recognizes Brock Hunter for his Work with Veterans in the Criminal Justice System
Horrific battlefield injuries — physical and mental. Frustrating struggles for medical care of those injuries months and years after military discharge. Families, relationships and civilian lives changed forever. And stunning numbers of veterans contemplating suicide, to say nothing of the 686 veterans of all ages in Minnesota who did end their own lives between 2007 to 2012.
So many aspects of the four-part “Scars of Service” Times news report this past week make you shudder that it’s hard to know where to begin. Start by looking at “Ma,” also known as Melony Butler. Then focus on Hector Matascastillo and Brock Hunter. Those three people show every Central Minnesotan what can be done — and overcome — when you put helping veterans ahead of everything. Ahead of yourself. Ahead of “big government.” Ahead of “red tape.” Ahead of “standard operating procedure.” And miles ahead of “I can’t make a difference.” For full article...
The Great Debate: Who's to Blame when an Injured Soldier Killed Civilians
Obviously, most veterans with PTSD don’t commit a crime. But attorney Brockton Hunter, who specializes in PTSD defense and co-wrote the Attorney’s Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Courtwith Meshad, says that “historical research confirms waves of veteran-committed crimes after every major conflict.” The U.S. Army’s own 2009 study of a rash of violent crimes at Ft. Carson, Colorado, found a correlation between the number and intensity of soldiers’ deployments and “negative behavioral outcomes.” Hunter says: “In other words, the more you see, and do, in combat, the more likely you are to be affected by it and to act out in bad ways.” Link to full story...
Ryan Else Honored for Veterans Advocacy Work
A Richfield lawyer is being honored next month by a statewide arts and culture group for dedicating his legal practice and volunteer work to veterans suffering from PTSD.
Ryan Else—himself a veteran—is slated to receive the Minnesota Humanities Center's Veterans Voices award on Sept. 11 for helping to educate lawyers on how to defend a person suffering from the psychological scars of war, and for volunteer work to help local veterans. Link to full story...
April's Veteran of the Month: Brock Hunter
Brock Hunter is an attorney and former Army scout who focuses his practice on defending psychologically injured veterans in the criminal courts and advocating for reforms in the way the justice system deals with them. Brock helped draft and lead passage of Minnesota’s Veterans Sentencing Mitigation Act, Minn. Stat. 609.115, subd. 10., which was subsequently cited in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Porter v. McCollum, 130 S. Ct. 447, at 455, n.9 (2009), the Court’s first to address combat trauma in criminal sentencing. Brock has since helped pass similar veteran sentencing legislation in other states, has been called on to brief the Obama Presidential Transition Team, and has spoken to leadership of the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs on more effective ways to address troubled veterans who commit crimes. Link to full story...
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans in Trouble with the Law
Brockton Hunter, a Minneapolis lawyer who specializes in defending veterans in criminal cases, began to see the surge in his practice several years ago. Checking with other colleagues, Hunter came to the conclusion that this is only the tip of the spear.
"I saw a problem that was getting worse," Hunter says. "If we don't do something about this, I'm worried we're going to see a generation of veterans building up criminal records that keep them from ever getting back on their feet." Link to full story...
War Veteran Avoids Prison for Wife's Slaying
Hunter said Torgesen had bouts when he was out of touch with reality and at times thought he was back on the battlefield. Torgesen was part of the 25th Infantry Division, his attorney said. Torgesen's unit was regarded by some scholars as having seen some of the worst combat in all of the war. Link to full story...
Mitigation Law has Helped Vets in Plea Deals, Sentencing
For many veterans struggling to assimilate back into society, contact with the criminal justice system only makes things worse. "A criminal conviction just adds additional barriers to them reintegrating," said Hunter. To that end, criminal defense attorneys are using the mitigation statute to assist their clients in either avoiding a conviction or lessening the charge. "In a lot of these cases, I've been able to convince prosecutors to willingly do a stay of adjudication were they might not otherwise agree to that," said Hunter. Link to full article...
After the Battle, Fighting the Bottle at Home
“Before joining the Marines, Mr. Klecker drank and smoked marijuana, but not heavily, said his lawyer, Brockton Hunter. He was once stopped for drinking and driving, but the charge was downgraded to careless driving because his blood-alcohol level was just over the limit.
After Iraq, he shipped out to Okinawa and did what many marines do there: he drank – a lot. But it was not until he left the Marines and returned home to suburban St. Paul that his panic attacks, nightmares and insomnia worsened. So did his drinking. He rarely spoke about the war, and only to other veterans. Link to full story...
The Growing Number of Returning Veterans with PTSD Present Unique Challenges for the Criminal Justice System
"We've had 1.7 million people deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and almost half of them have gone back more than once," said Minneapolis criminal defense attorney Brockton Hunter, who works extensively with veteran defendants. "About 600,000 of those people have PTSD or TBI (traumatic brain injury), and less than half of them get the help they need. Those are the ones who pop up in the criminal courts." Link to full story...
In More Cases, Combat Trauma is Taking the Stand
“Occasionally it works.”
Anthony J. Klecker, a former marine, pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide for a drunken crash that killed a high school cheerleader, Deanna Casey, in Minnesota in 2006. But his lawyer argued that Mr. Klecker, 29, who had already spent a year in jail, should be sentenced to six months of inpatient treatment instead of the 48 months in prison called for by sentencing guidelines.
“Tony would never, ever claim his war experiences, associated psychological injuries and alcoholism should excuse him from responsibility for Ms. Casey’s death,” his lawyer, Brockton D. Hunter, wrote the judge. But, he said, Mr. Klecker was a “psychological casualty of the war in Iraq who unsuccessfully sought treatment from an overstrained Veterans Administration.” Link to full story...
Brock Hunter Helps Expand Veteran Treatment Courts in Minnesota
Two years after Hennepin County launched a Veterans Treatment Court, more than 100 veterans have avoided jail time and gotten the help they needed. The Minneapolis court has become a model -- and now, advocates say something like it is needed outside the metro area to help veterans there.
Marine combat veteran Seth Kroll is one of the veterans helped by the court. Relaxing on a folding chair outside his apartment building in Willmar recently, he reflected on his long journey back to civilian life. Link to full story...
Brock Hunter Closes the Forum with the "Echoes of War" Presentation, Defending Psychologically Injured Veterans in Criminal Court
Brockton Hunter, a formidable defense attorney, former U.S. Army Recon Scout, now focuses his busy criminal defense practice on defending psychologically injured veterans in the criminal courts. He also led the passage of Minnesota’s Veterans’ Sentencing Mitigation Act and briefed the Obama Presidential Transition team. Mr. Hunter’s two-hour presentation was the last presentation of the Forum, and kept every participant riveted, focused, and many in tears for the duration. Though Mr. Hunter provided a lot of hands-on information on how to defend veterans, that was not the essence or the takeaway from his presentation. Link to full story...
The Trenches at Home: Veterans, Crime, & PTSD Throughout History
Brockton D. Hunter is a man large in stature, but gentle in demeanor. Yet, when he talks about veterans, he is anything but gentle. America, he said in a talk at the first annual Veteran Courts Conference, has a tradition of treating its returning war veterans poorly. Throughout “The Coming Wave: Learning Lessons from History in Preparing for the Aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan,” Hunter interspersed informational slides with images of soldiers in battles throughout the years. Link to full story...
All Veterans are Changed by War
My sense of humor was perfect for the military and I would always rely on humor to combat sadness. However while attending last year’s conference on veterans treatment courts, I was overcome with emotion and cried during the story of a Vietnam veteran who killed his wife in a failed suicide attempt. While there were some tough emotional moments throughout the First Annual Veterans Court Conference, there was none more personally difficult than my unexpected reaction when Brock Hunter spoke about his research on veterans long history of trouble with the law. Link to full story...
Texas Judge Ricky Fritz Discusses Brock Hunter's "Echoes of War" Presentation
I attended the 2013 Spring Texas Judicial Academy at Lubbock for two days last week for my required Criminal Court training. It is taught by the Texas Tech Law School, and they do a great job. Just like most conferences, there are some sessions that stand out among the others. The session this week that is burned into my brain was entitled “Echoes of War: The Combat Veteran in Criminal Court” and was led by Brock Hunter, Attorney at Law. Link to full story...
Brock Hunter Champions Sentencing Mitigation Statute for Veterans with Service-Related Injuries
Last week, Minnesota became the second state in the nation to pass a sentence-mitigation bill for veterans facing criminal prosecution who suffer from combat related mental health disorders. Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill into law the evening of May 12, meaning courts will now be allowed to consider treatment over incarceration. California passed a similar law in 2007. Link to full story...
Brock Hunter Speaks with Jack Rice about Vets, PTSD, & the Law on AM 950 KTNF
Veteran and criminal defense attorney Brock Hunter has been at the forefront of this issue for years. He drove the legislation here in Minnesota and has become an advocate on the topic across the country. He regularly speaks in Washington DC and elsewhere on the topic. He joins me to talk about it. Link to full broadcast...