Judge John Tatro - Mental Health Court

Senior Judge John Tatro was Justice of the Peace/Municipal Court Judge in Carson City, Department II, from 1995 to January 2019.  Judge Tatro began his judicial career as the Hearings Officer for the Nevada State Gaming Control Board serving in that capacity from 1987 – 1995. He shares his experiences in the courtroom and how they inspired beginning Mental Health Court in his area.

 Some of Judge Tatro’s judicial accomplishments are:

 ·        Voted 2003 Judge of the Year by the Nevada Judges Association;
·        Has attended many classes at the Nevada Judicial College, and the National Center for State Courts, and has attained the highest level of judicial education - Distinguished Jurist;
·         2008 President of the Nevada Judges Association of Limited Jurisdiction;
·        Member of the State Judicial Council;
·        Member of the Judicial Code Commission (Supreme Court Appointment);
·        Began Mental Health Court in March, 2005;
·        Member of the Specialty Court Funding Committee (Supreme Court Appointment);
·        Member of the Court Technology Committee (Supreme Court Appointment);
·        Worked with justice court staff to implement a more effective case management system;
·        Expanded the Department of Alternative Sentencing to ensure compliance with court-ordered sentences.

Judge Tatro has always felt that it is not only important to be active in his profession but also feels strongly that it is important to be very involved in the community.  Some of his community involvement consists of:

·        2000-2001 President of the Rotary Club of Carson City, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Rotary Foundation and has since 2000, and has been a member of the Rotary Club since 1995 except for a 3 year hiatus.
·        2006 President of the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada, and served on the Board for 18 years.
·        Member of the steering committee for Partnership Carson City, an anti-methamphetamine coalition, commencing in 2005 until retirement.
·        Vice President of Circles of Support, an organization to end homelessness.

 Judge Tatro has also been very active with the youth in the community, having coached basketball, baseball, soccer, and taught skiing for the Carson City Recreation Program for 10 years.

Enjoy this conversation with Judge John Tatro!

Transcript

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And he would get so mad he he would like rip a door off a wall or or do something that would scare people. But if he had his dog, he would sit down with the dog. He, you know, his counselor, went over and over this with him. And this was before people started using comfort dogs and dogs to the effect that they're using them now. And he would sit down and just stroke the dog. and the dog would just sit there and he'd just go from this wild guy that people were afraid to even be on the same side of the street to just a very calm, peaceful person. It was amazing. Amazing to watch. Hello and welcome to Give a Dog a Bone. I'm Genevieve Frederick, the Founder of Feeding Pets of the Homeless. Find out more about our mission and the animals we've helped. Hear the stories of insiders, volunteers and leaders about why we do what we do and how you can make a difference. It's all here on Give a dog a bone. I am here with a very special guest today, Senior Judge John Tatro. He was a justice of the peace in the Municipal Court Judge in Carson City. And he began his career as a hearing officer for the Nevada State Gaming Control Board. So John, you're here today as an official. But on the on the unofficial side, you were also a judge at a couple of the Cutest Dogs of Carson City, Nevada. You want to tell us a little bit about that experience? Well, thank you for having me, Genevieve. I've judged murder cases and burglaries and robberies and things like that. But the dog contest was right up at the top for stress. That was that was a scary thing. People who own dogs think their dog are the cutest dogs there are. And and if you don't agree with them, then you've got some problems. But those, those two times that we did those contests, it was so fun. And you're absolutely right. Everybody thinks their dog is the most adorable. And it was hard to pick. So John actually ended up getting a category for almost every dog. That was fair. So it was the cutest male dog, the cutest female dog, the cutest costumed dog. But he went through all these categories and it was hysterical. It was. It was very. It was fun and it was lighthearted. I know that in your courtroom you have dealt with homeless people. And I wanted to let our listeners know that a lot of the people that we talk to on a daily basis are experiencing homelessness. And it's not a choice that they had. It is for economic reasons, its circumstances. It's personal family issues, health issues. It could be a national disaster. There are so many reasons why people become homeless, and I know that you've had some of them in your courtroom. Do you have any specific stories or something you want to tell our listeners about the issue? And if any of those had a pet, Well, lots had pets and and that's something that we deal with in court. They still deal with every day. I mean, I still am a judge and I don't work as much as I did. But every day that I do work, you deal with homeless people and a lot of the homeless people have pets. And when they get arrested, usually their biggest and go to jail, usually their biggest concern is, Oh my God, my cat or , you know, is in my car or down by my tent or my dog is with a friend. I don't know how long he's going to be able to keep them. I mean, they're always concerned about their dogs, and that's always a big issue in the court because you just know that it's something that's extremely important to them . Yeah, that that dog or cat was probably the only thing they had to give them any kind of comfort during that. You know, when you're homeless, you're so isolated and having that animal is so important to these folks and we get calls saying I just got out of jail. I'm homeless. The animal control people have my pet. I need to get my pet back. Well, it's you know, that's not something that is our mission t to help people get their pets back once they've been in the system. And sometimes those animals have been rehomed by then. If they're elderly or if they're ill, they may have been euthanized. So, you know, we can't go down that road. We have enough to handle treating emergency veterinary care. For men, women, our veterans. Those situations are so vast that it blows my mind some time. And when their animals are injured or ill, the anguish that we hear is heartbreaking because their dogs been hit by a car or their dog has been stabbed or their dog has been shot. We've had instances where the police have come in to break up a homeless camp and the dog is protecting his owner and lunges at that police officer and the police officer has, you know, he has to protect herself. So you have these things happen, but we treat all of those animals, whatever their illness, whatever their injury is. I know you have a dog. Tell us about your dog. Well, my dog is Walter. He's an English bulldog, and he's he's a great dog. He slobbers everywhere. People sometimes are kind of put off by bulldogs because they're only a mother can love is what people say about them. But we think he's the cutest dog that's ever been just like the people in the in the contest. And he's our our second bulldog. He's a great dog. He loves the grandkids. He's good with the kids. His is fun, slobbers all over the kids. Would you say that most of the cases that come through your court? The homeless people, you know, what kind of a category would you put them in? Is it drugs? Is it mental? Is it circumstantial? Do they tell you how they ended up homeless before they've been arrested for whatever the crime might be? Yeah, you know, we deal every single day. We have homeless people in court and, I mean, usually without fail. Well, at least four days a week, we'll deal with homeless people. And typically, what we see because some criminal act has been involved. Typically, it's drugs, serious drugs and alcohol addiction or, and or mental health issues, those are those are what we see and as far as how they became homeless, sometimes we go down that path, you know, by the time we get them, they've usually been. They didn't just become homeless. They've been there a while, and so it's it's hard to kind of peel the onion to get back to how it all started. But, usually it's, what we see is because of drugs, alcohol and mental health issues. And many times it's all of them in one. Right. I know here in our small town you were instrumental in getting some programs started. You want to tell us a little bit about those kinds of programs and it's because of what you saw in your courtroom. Right? So in 2005, I had been on the bench for ten years, and you can see the mental health issues were becoming more and more predominant. More and more we see them in court more and more often. And it just kept happening, in SF and nationally there were mental health courts popping out. The first one, I think, was in Florida and the second one was in Seattle. And we were kind of watching those and seeing how they worked. And so in 2005, we we opened one here in Carson City and it's still going today It is probably the most rewarding thing as a judge that I did. And every once in a while, I still get to go sit in mental health court. I mean, it's a thing where you see somebody come in and they're ill, extremely ill, mentally ill, and you can help them. You can get them back on their medication, you can get them in counseling, you can get them housing and you watch this, you know, you watch them progress and it's just a great thing to see. We'll have their families come into court and, you know, be cheering and happy. And we hear stories about how mom had to go in her bedroom and had a deadbolt on the bedroom door because she was afraid her son, who's mentally ill , would come in and and do something. And and all that kind of goes away, at least while they're in mental health court. You don't you don't cure somebody who's mentally ill, but you give them the tools to help them deal with it and take their medications and live a normal, productive life. It's it was a it's the greatest thing I felt as a judge that I could have done or I did. So you should be proud and we're proud of you as well. I mean, that is something that you know, more communities should take a hard look at. Homelessness is rampant across the country and with evictions, I'm I'm sure your courts are going to see a lot of those kinds of things happening. And it just puts that extra stress on these people that may have borderline mental issues To be evicted, that self-esteem and the whole, you know, it's just this cycle that It's so hard to get out of once you get into homelessness, unless you have a family, a good support group behind you or an organization that can help you. I know just helping these pets of these homeless people. They have told us that we have given them hope That they are, that there's somebody and there are groups out there that can help them. So sometimes it's just a matter of them reaching out and asking for that help. I know for our veterans, that's probably one of the hardest to do is to reach out. These men and women have been trained to be self-sufficient, independent and, you know, be a team. And then all of a sudden they find their self in homelessness and they're embarrassed. Number one, they they they are afraid to reach out. We just started working with the VA on a program where they are housing chronically homeless that can live independently and as long as they are working with a case manager within the V.A., we will help their pets if they're injured or ill or they need whatever they need . The social workers that we have talked to that are working with these veterans are so relieved that now there is somebody out here that can help them when their pet is injured or ill. So that's a program that started out as a pilot program. It's now a legitimate program that we're doing. So I'm hoping some of our listeners that may know a veteran that is homeless, that needs help. That is a call that they should make. And if they have a pet, of course we'll help them. So John, what what else can you tell us? Well, I think I think like I said, though, I think homelessness relates to from from what I see and I know there are lots of other reasons, but from what we see in court and from the criminal justice system, it relates to drugs and alcohol and it relates to mental health issues. And I just think the focus could kind of shift some and, and we could do a lot of good. I know that like right here in Carson City, you can drive down Main Street and I can point and show you people that have been in and out of jail literally 40 times and it's all relating to they get drunk and they do. I mean, like drunk, like crazy drunk, and they end up in jail. I just think more can be done to reach out and help them. And in Carson City, we're starting to do that. Like the sheriff, not starting, we have been, the sheriff has the MOST team. It's an acronym that I can never remember what it stands for, but it is a mental health worker, a counselor. Actually, Becca Bock is assigned full time to the MOST team. And she goes out with a deputy. Don Gibson is a very experienced deputy. And if they get a call like to to to somebody that's homeless or to somebody that has a mental health issue, they go out and they try to get them services and get them, you know, get them something they need. And lots of times these people have pets. And then Becca and Don Gibson will help take care of the pants or find somebody that they're not going to take the pets home. But they're going to try to help out and try to find a program or something that can help them keep their pets. There was a mental health court case. There was this great big guy, and he was a big, scary dude and he had a dog. He would get so frustrated and so angry about things that didn't really make sense to us, but to him, it made all the sense in the world and he would get so mad. He he would like rip a door off a wall or do something that would scare people. But if he had his dog, he would sit down with the dog. He, you know, his counselor, went over and over this with him, and this was before people started using comfort dogs and dogs to the effects they're using him now. And he would sit down and just stroke. The dog and the dog would just sit there and he'd just go from this wild guy that people were afraid to even be on the same side of the street to just a very calm, peaceful person. It was amazing. Amazing to watch. Yeah, they offer so much comfort. It truly is amazing. I think reaching out instead of waiting until we get the call, you know that they've just broken windows or they've done whatever they've done that's a crime that they're going to get arrested on. And we started reaching out having the ability, like the most team to go out and talk to people to prevent the arrest, to try to get them help try to channel them into a program. I think we could. And that's what I think we're starting to see more and more of. And I think we have to I mean, look at the homeless number in the Bay Area or L.A. or across the country. We're seeing it and we get calls from every state. I think we're now in. We've helped people in 650 different cities across the country. And you know, we, we verify homelessness and sometimes that kind of makes things slow down a little bit because we can't find that person at the homeless shelter or a social worker. Or maybe it's even a manager at a food bank that can say, Yeah, this person really is homeless. They're living in their car. I know it. We get calls from police officers from across the country that will call and say, You know, we've got this guy on my beat and his dog is really sick. Can you help them? And they'll actually take the dog and the homeless person to the hospital so the dog can get treated and just word of mouth, getting out there. That will help these kinds of situations when the the dogs and the cats, so many times homeless people will not go to get medical treatment because they have no place to leave their dog or their cat, and they get sicker and sicker. And we know that homeless people are more susceptible to all kinds of illnesses because they're out and about. So, you know, that's that's something that I'm hoping that this message will go out to communities and somebody in that community will go, Hey , I could help do this. Maybe,you know, they contact the sheriff or the police department, and say next time you arrest somebody that has a dog that's homeless and instead of taking it to here, I'll try to foster this dog. There's all kinds of ways that this could happen, but it sure would help bring down the stress level of the people that have to go to the hospital or have to go to jail or have to appear in court. So, yeah, we always ask social workers in their office to allow those animals in the office. Have a crate there. Because that person's going to be a lot calmer if that dog is right there That they know their dogs are safe and they can pet it and talk to it. We encourage social workers that are working with the homeless. If there's an animal involved, please let them join in that meeting when you are trying to give that person the help that they need to get out of homelessness. So. Well, John, this has been such a delight. I am so happy and pleased that you were able to take some time out of your busy day to talk to us. Well, thank you, Genevieve. It's my pleasure. And you do God's work. So I think this is a great, a great thing. Thank you. Thank you, John. Take care. Be sure to listen to our next podcast to learn more about the work we do to help pets of homeless across the country. Bye now. You've been listening to Give a Dog a Bone brought to you by Feeding Pets of the Homeless if you enjoyed the show. Help us by leaving us a five star review. It really helps new listeners find the show. If you'd like to connect with us, you can find us on social media and the web at petsofthehomeless.org. I've been your host, Genevieve, until next time. Thanks for listening!