GRADUATES OF DRUG COURT PROGRAM IN COUNTY CELEBRATE THEIR REHABILITATION

Judges, legislators and St. Louis County officials attend the ceremony.
Participants leave the program drug-free with no conviction on record.

One of the 10 is a second-year student at a law school. Another is the
proud mother of a baby girl. A third provides a stable home for five sons.
Yet one more attends a business school.

All were honored Friday at the courthouse in Clayton for rehabilitating
their lives as graduates of the drug court.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. was the
keynote speaker, with Supreme Court Judges Ronnie White and Richard
Teitelman in attendance. So, too, were a dozen county judges, and a handful
of state legislators and county officials.

The 10 "graduates" had just completed a year or more of weekly or
twice-a-month visits to court, where they shared their private thoughts and
drug struggles with Drug Court Judge Mark D. Seigel and prosecutor Kathi
Alizadeh.

Included in the program were drug treatment and counseling - either
inpatient or outpatient -plus random drug testing and either continuing
employment or education.

Besides taking the word of participants, the judge and prosecutor got
independent evaluations from probation officers and drug treatment
counselors. Not everyone who starts the drug court program makes it. Some
end up in jail or prison, or on probation with a criminal record.

One of the results of completing the program, besides a drug-clean mind and
body, is a drug-clean criminal record. Seigel said participants initially
must plead guilty to whatever drug crime they are charged with - typically
first-time, nonviolent felonies - then are allowed to withdraw their pleas
after completion of the program.

In his speech, Limbaugh told the 10 graduates, and about 50 undergraduates,
about a friend he knew in Little League when both were in grade school.

Years later, the grade school friend killed two people in a gun battle over
drugs, was convicted of murder and "last year was executed by lethal
injection," Limbaugh said. "I played Little League baseball with that man.
Substance abuse unchecked always ends in tragedy."

Drug court is designed, Limbaugh said, "to help you folks do all you can to
realize your potential. ... This is the time of year when we celebrate life
and the renewal of life and rebirth."

Judge White added, "Today, you have a second chance and you should make the
most of it."

St. Louis County's drug court is one of a half-dozen throughout the
metropolitan area in both Missouri and Illinois. An alternative to jail or
prison, such courts are generally financed by a combination of federal,
state and local funds.

The graduation ceremony on Fri day was the county's sixth in the three
years the program has been in effect.

Reporter William C. Lhotka:\ E-mail: blhotka@post-dispatch.com\ Phone:
314-615-3283

By William C. Lhotka Of The Post-Dispatch

* Judges, legislators and St. Louis County officials attend the ceremony.
Participants leave the program drug-free with no conviction on record.

One of the 10 is a second-year student at a law school. Another is the
proud mother of a baby girl. A third provides a stable home for five sons.
Yet one more attends a business school.

All were honored Friday at the courthouse in Clayton for rehabilitating
their lives as graduates of the drug court.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. was the
keynote speaker, with Supreme Court Judges Ronnie White and Richard
Teitelman in attendance. So, too, were a dozen county judges, and a handful
of state legislators and county officials.

The 10 "graduates" had just completed a year or more of weekly or
twice-a-month visits to court, where they shared their private thoughts and
drug struggles with Drug Court Judge Mark D. Seigel and prosecutor Kathi
Alizadeh.

Included in the program were drug treatment and counseling - either
inpatient or outpatient -plus random drug testing and either continuing
employment or education.

Besides taking the word of participants, the judge and prosecutor got
independent evaluations from probation officers and drug treatment
counselors. Not everyone who starts the drug court program makes it. Some
end up in jail or prison, or on probation with a criminal record.

One of the results of completing the program, besides a drug-clean mind and
body, is a drug-clean criminal record. Seigel said participants initially
must plead guilty to whatever drug crime they are charged with - typically
first-time, nonviolent felonies - then are allowed to withdraw their pleas
after completion of the program.

In his speech, Limbaugh told the 10 graduates, and about 50 undergraduates,
about a friend he knew in Little League when both were in grade school.

Years later, the grade school friend killed two people in a gun battle over
drugs, was convicted of murder and "last year was executed by lethal
injection," Limbaugh said. "I played Little League baseball with that man.
Substance abuse unchecked always ends in tragedy."

Drug court is designed, Limbaugh said, "to help you folks do all you can to
realize your potential. ... This is the time of year when we celebrate life
and the renewal of life and rebirth."

Judge White added, "Today, you have a second chance and you should make the
most of it."

St. Louis County's drug court is one of a half-dozen throughout the
metropolitan area in both Missouri and Illinois. An alternative to jail or
prison, such courts are generally financed by a combination of federal,
state and local funds.

The graduation ceremony on Fri day was the county's sixth in the three
years the program has been in effect.