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Benoit Jefferson was in a bad place, likely headed to a worse one. The 29-year-old veteran had a tough time adjusting to civilian life after serving in the Army for six years. He was arrested for aggravated DWI in June 2019 after rear-ending another driver at a stop sign and got another aggravated DWI three months later after an officer saw him speeding and drifting in his lane. Jefferson was a distinct threat to himself and others. Prison or worse were on the horizon.
No more. Today, Jefferson is sober and works full time as a nurse thanks to his desire to turn his life around – – and Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court’s Community Veterans Court. Jefferson was recently the program’s 100th graduate in a virtual ceremony. “I got to take a better look inside myself and deal with some things that I was just completely avoiding that I couldn’t overcome alone,” he says. “The program gave me a lot of tools I could use to improve myself.”