Mental Health Court graduates four

The McHenry County Mental Health Court graduated four participants from its program at last night's ceremony. The four completed programs that were tailored for each of them, and Judge Weech congratulated each and presented a certificate of completion and a specially-engraved coin.

The courtroom on the second floor was nearly full with family and visitors. Attending also was the Mental Health Court Team from the specialty court, which included the clinician, the nurse, the probation officer for the court, an Assistant State's Attorney who handles cases in this court, the Assistant Public Defender assigned to defendants in this court, and the Administrator for the Court's program.

State's Attorney Lou Bianchi addressed the group, and Judge Weech praised not only the participants for completing their programs, but he also thanked the Team for their work with all the participants.

A guest speaker, Monte Staton, from Loyola University and Ph.D.-candidate, presented information about a study done of the several mental health courts in Illinois.

Charges resulting from a total of 22 arrests of the four graduates were dismissed earlier in the day. This is one of the rewards of completing the program.

The Mental Health Court program is a voluntary program that may be open to persons charged with a wide range of misdemeanor crimes and some felonies. Traffic cases and most DUIs are not eligible for the Mental Health Court. Since the Court started in 2007, there have been 35 graduates, and only three have re-offended.

Congratulations to the graduates (last night's and earlier) and thanks to the Team for their many hours of hard work.