NEWTON, N.C. —  Walking into the Catawba County Courthouse, Tommy Todd faces a range of emotions. 

What You Need To Know

  • The first group of veterans graduated from Veterans' Treatment Court in Catawba County
  • The program, launched April 2021, helps veterans involved in the justice system with mental health, trauma and substance abuse
  • Graduate and Marine Corps veteran Tommy Todd was an alcoholic and had been arrested, he suffered from PTSD and says if it wasn't for the program he would have drank himself to death
  • Catawba was the fifth county in the state to have a treatment court for veterans, joining Buncombe, Cumberland, Forsyth and Harnett counties in providing such assistance to veterans who have cases in the court system.

“Surreal, when I started this journey, almost two years ago, I didn’t think this day would actually come, but here we are," Todd said. 

In 2021, during a Fourth of July binge-drinking weekend, Todd was arrested. 

“I was drinking somewhere between 45 to 50 beers a day, including liquor mixed in with a glass of fireball or Jameson mixed in, that was my poison," Todd said. 

A Marine Corps veteran, Todd was living with PTSD. 

“The medicine that I was currently taking after I came off my body was starting to have DT from it, and I would be sick and nauseated, and the first thing I found that would handle the nausea was beer," Todd said. 

He'd hit rock bottom and was at the brink of losing his kids and his life. 

Staring at his mugshot, which usually hangs in his living room as a reminder, Todd says he can't even relate to the person in the picture frame. 

After his arrest, Todd was accepted into Catawba County's first Veterans' Treatment Court. 

The program's goal is to divert eligible veterans from facing time behind bars and instead provide mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation. 

“There is no doubt by this point in time I would either be in some long-term care facility, or I would be dead, because that’s the path I was going down. I was going to drink myself to death," Todd said. 

Instead of dreading his day in front of a judge, Todd, along with two more veterans, celebrated graduating from the program in a courtroom full of emotion. 

Todd hopes more veterans have their day in Veterans' Treatment Court, instead of facing a jail sentence. 

“Instead of incarceration, rehabilitating them into society as a functioning individual," Todd said. 

The program now has 21 active participants.

Catawba was just the fifth county in the state to have a treatment court for veterans, joining Buncombe, Cumberland, Forsyth and Harnett counties in providing such assistance to veterans who have cases in the court system.

Since then, nearby Iredell County also has established a treatment court for its veteran population.