I feel like it's not fair to leave a courthouse a bad review because I mean... Who likes going to…read morecourt?! So the unpleasantries aside, it's a clean facility. The security officers are relatively pleasant as are the people behind the desks. What more can I really say? Ugh I recommend you don't do things to have to be seen by a judge here or have to pay citations? I had to pay a traffic infraction today which sucked, but as the saying goes: do the crime, pay the fine.

Miserable Clerk needs to get a new job if she's so fed up with her life! Called and asked for…read morequestions regarding name change in the clerk seemed like I was bothering her and interrupting her day even though I had been on hold for 35 minutes already when she put me on another 10 minute hold just to answer two questions. FOH

Just had a child custody hearing with Judge Sandra Unsworth. She was completely biased,…read morecondescending and rude. I had exhibits that she refused to even look at. This hearing has destroyed my faith in the system and ultimately will have a very negative impact on my family. Especially my kids. After the hearing, I spoke with several people who work at the court who said her staff and many people in the courts cannot stand her. My attorney also said she has a terrible reputation and is a bitter, lonely and miserable human. Has anybody else had this experience? I find it hard to believe this has only happened with my case. I want to file a motion for reconsideration and request others be there in person to see firsthand how corrupt this judge is.

I had written a rave review about my online experience with SJC a few years back. Yesterday I…read moreaccompanied a family member in support of their situation and visited the physical location. Note to self. don't go to criminal court, ever, purposely. I am very grateful for law and order, and the people who have to enforce it to keep us all safe. And the stars are for the people who day in and day out have to deal with the stories I heard while waiting our turn to be heard. Do not wear thick, tie up boots. I could not get through security because something I was wearing kept sounding off the metal detector. I think they were the eyelets in my boots. The security folks are very patient and kind. It was first thing in the morning and we were early, and I could feel my hair standing on end.. The courthouse floor was pristine. Like a mirror. Hats off to the maintenance and housekeeping staff! There is a hush and also a "move to the left" when the incarcerated folks come in. Kind of intimidating to me just to view the presentation and hear the shackles. All of the law enforcement folks, the DA, Public Defender teams, court reporters, etc, were very professional and courteous. There were some family members in there crying. A room full of mixed emotion. I am grateful for the experience and appreciate and respect those who work in that environment

I've had several okay interactions with Washoe County Sheriff's Office "WCSO" over the years at…read moreeach years National Championship Air Races and Sun Valley Nevada Annual Veterans Appreciation Breakfast https://www.yelp.com/biz/sun-valley-neighborhood-center-sun-valley. At one or the other I've met the elected Sheriff, several sworn Deputies, several volunteer Reserve Deputies, and several administrative staff. Their Press Releases on their website are well-written (FAR better than Reno PD or Sparks PD press releases). I have no complaints. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won. WCSO has stepped up to help out Veterans. WCSO is now on the front lines of fighting to reduce the staggering and horrifying number of Veterans who daily succumb to suicide at the rate of more than twice that of non-Veterans. In 2000, WCSO recognized the special burdens of alienation and terrible toll Veterans carry from their military Service and created Veterans Barracks to house up to 60 male Veterans. Program includes the addition of Veterans' familiar resources from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and Veterans organizations. WCSO staff works to help Veterans in jail get out of jail and stay out by acknowledging their military Service and building programs centered on Veterans' shared experiences. "The ultimate goal is to reduce recidivism amongst our Veteran population in Washoe County," said Sgt. Andrew Venn, who is part of the Inmate Management Unit at WCSO. "We bring in very specific targeted programming just for those Veterans, so the classes they'll have available, for example, anger management, domestic abuse, substance abuse, and parenting are four major ones." Deputy Shannon Aller, who has a degree in psychology, said "The reason that we're doing that -- not only for us as an agency to track recidivism and see what's working, but to make sure that what we are putting in this unit is what they need." Venn said once he introduced himself as a Veteran to the inmates who are Veterans, "the change was instantaneous. They went from being standoffish and protective of their personal space to unifying under their shared identity as Veterans. The idea of peer support came up almost immediately and that is not something you hear walking around a jail," said Venn. An inmate told Venn, 'We're Veterans first.' WCSO partners with Truckee Meadows Community College to offer education for inmates along with representatives from Reno Job Connect, who visit biweekly to prepare inmates for a job search once released. Since 2020, WCSO have partnered with Northern Nevada State Veterans Home with their 'Operation Gift A Vet'. Some 86 female and male Veterans living at this Veterans Home are asked to write down three things they want for Christmas-- and their wishes are hung on the tree for the WCSO employees to collect and grant. Requests have been for slippers to blankets to compression socks to robes. According to Yelp ratings' definitions, 3 Stars is "Ok". That to me is an acceptable rating of a business that does day in and day out what they are in business to do. WCSO gets another star for their work with Veterans. On Christmas Day in history: 1776, General George Washington and the Continental Army famously crossed the Delaware River. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. Christmas Day 1862, a grateful nation showed its appreciation for sacrifices of the US Army and Navy with dinners for some 35,0000 sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in hospitals in and near the nation's capital. President Lincoln and the First Lady attended the event--one of the more extraordinary of its kind during the American Civil War. "Nowhere else in the world than in America," a New York newspaper wrote, "could have been the sight which has made this holiday in Washington remarkable and memorable - spread by the hands of individual benevolence." Elizabeth Smith, wife of Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior, was a driving force behind this Christmas Day event. Financial contributions for the event poured in from individuals, businesses and states. (Indiana contributed $700, and $2,500 was collected in Philadelphia.) Food came from throughout the Union. Pennsylvania and Maryland shipped an "immense amount" of poultry. "Ever-generous" Albany, NY provided 300 turkeys, "cooked and ready to eat." Four carloads of poultry arrived from Chicago. Volunteers served the dinners in military hospital wards that volunteers had lavishly decorated. Christmas Day1896: Lieutenant Commander John Philip Sousa, US Marine Corps and US Navy Veteran, a "rock star" of his era wrote "Stars and Stripes Forever". The iconic song officially became America's National March in 1987.

These people do not offer any mental help or veteran care. In fact they assault veterans. I was…read moresexually assaulted in the booking area. I was threaten with a taser for no reason, I was already being restrained on the floor. I have tried to get my records and video but they refuse. Worse experience of my life. I also believe that I was retaliated against because I told them i was a veteran and believed that all should be treated equal.

The novel and film Cool Hand Luke continue to haunt me. The story reveals America's failure of…read moreempathy, respect and gratitude to its Veterans. It is a tale of cultural sadism to a decorated war hero with Service-connected PTSD who was self-medicating himself with alcohol from the horrors he had experienced in war. He's imprisoned after a PTSD episode of drunkenly cutting off the heads of parking meters. It is really wrenching when this decorated war hero is ordered to "git his mind right," whipped, tortured, beaten, then killed, all by sadistic Americans. All would at least give you some pause. You just don't have such fraught relationships with Veterans who are so fragile, desperate, discouraged --who far prefer to never have experienced the horrors of war, and society's mistreatment of its Veterans. American culture has moved past such outright vicious cruelty to its Veterans in the years since. Today, that tale is indeed a violation of our contemporary ideas about the moral and proper way to deal with our Veterans. So, it is particularly horrifying that only 41 states currently have at least one Veterans Court. A couple years ago I had a Veteran friend arrested in Reno, Nevada. He didn't know about Veterans Court. I did, so I contacted help who got him transferred to Reno Veterans Court. Instead of being jailed, two years later, I see a different Veteran, a Veteran with tools to help him better safely and legally function. An always growing number of Veterans like my friend leave their military Service with life-long issues from including but not limited to PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual abuse, trauma exposure. One in five Veterans has symptoms of a mental health disorder or cognitive impairment. One in six Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom suffer from a substance use issue. Many Viet Nam war Veterans have several life-long Service-connected issues. No wonder why Veterans are more than two times succumbing to suicide than non-Veterans. Veterans Courts were first created in America in 2008 for Veterans and Active Duty GIs. Because a Veterans Court judge handles numerous Veterans and GIs cases and is supported by a strong, interdisciplinary team, he or she is in a much better position to exercise discretion and effectively respond than a judge who only occasionally hears a case involving a Veteran or GI defendant. A Veterans Court judge is more familiar with VA Health, VA Benefits, State Department of Veterans Services, Veterans Service organizations. Veterans Courts are a "one-stop shop," linking Veterans with programs, benefits and help they've earned. A VA Veterans Justice Outreach Specialist is present during court with a laptop computer able to access confidential medical records, make treatment appointments and communicate this information to the court. Reno's Veterans Court was created in 2009 as a holistic approach to help Veterans. It operates as a multi-jurisdictional court as it accepts cases for misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and felonies. Here the Court and its staff can better serve Veterans and GIs with an appropriate treatment program tailored to Veteran's individual needs. Programs range widely from weekly hearings and check-ins with court staff to arranging for transitional living and residential programs. For all participants, regardless of their program, Veterans Court operates as a 12-month program at no charge to the Veteran. Veterans Court partners with local providers to provide substance use counseling, case management, drug testing, and referrals to vocational, academic and housing programs. Additionally, the VA helps to provide housing, case management and psychiatrist and medication for certain participants. Egan Walker is the current Judge for Reno Veterans Court. His Military Service is United States Army from 1981-1990, with ranks of Sergeant then Second Lieutenant. His Units were California Army National Guard, Nevada Army National Guard, US Army Reserve, US Army Nurse Corps, and US Army1150th Medical Evacuation. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2017/08/veterans_treatmentc/ On this day in history 1 January 1950 - Mary T. Sproul, M.D. is commissioned as first female doctor in US Navy. Mary Thornton Sproul of Washington, D.C., entered US Navy in 1942 after several years as a blood plasma researcher at the old City Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sproul was one of the leading blood technologists in the world and helped ensure the purity of whole blood, and blood substitutes like plasma and serum albumin used by military. In the Korean war, Dr. Sproul oversaw the shipment of blood into an active combat zone and helped the South Korean Army establish a blood bank.

The man to thank for expanding Veterans Court to the western states is a former Army Infantry…read moreOfficer and Vietnam Veteran named Vernon Bagley. I worked with him on a radio show years ago called Voice of Veterans. Vern was a good man, hit hard by combat experiences, who always helped Veterans. He passed away last year.

I had court this morning and it was a fairly easy process through zoom. My case was dismissed and…read moreI told the judge I would give him a good yelp review, so here it is :)

The judge Kevin g Higgins and his staff were super friendly and Kevin was an amazing judge. Thank…read moreyou again

There was a blonde lady with glasses helped me today. I was confused with some questions. She got…read morefrustrated and impatient. Rolled her eyes on me, and she was chewing gum when she was talking. So PROFESSIONAL

There are two issues with this court; first, the Judge I had avoided ruling on an issue because…read morethey were concerned of the "big picture" implications (even though the city is clearly violating state law). This shows at least one judge will act to avoid tough issues and force people to push cases to the court of appeals. The second issue is the lawyers for the city of Sparks have no interest in truly following the law - like any private lawyer, they just want to win through any means possible, including misdirection and misrepresentation - all to protect the city (even if it violates state law). This is unethical and immoral. Ultimately, the system is rigged and designed solely for the benefit of the city and its lawyers, and as such, people will not find justice in this court.

This marker stands in downtown Reno along the Truckee River Walk and in front of the Washoe County…read moreCourthouse. Like some others in Nevada that I've seen, it is a rectangular steel sign mounted on a large blue mesh background shaped like the State of Nevada. The marker reads, "Reno. Before the arrival of the European Americans, the Washoe and Paiute people inhabited the Truckee Meadows. The Stevens-Murphy emigrant party passed through the area in 1844, and settlement began in the early 1850s. Charles William Fuller established a river ferry across the Truckee in the fall of 1859 and completed a bridge and a hotel by the spring of 1860. Myron C. Lake acquired Fuller's holdings in 1861, rebuilt the bridge and established Lake's Crossing. In 1868, Lake offered land for a depot to the Central Pacific Railroad and the town was laid out. The community's name honors a Civil War officer, General Jesse Lee Reno. "Reno's transcontinental railroad connection and its rail link to the Comstock Lode helped lay the foundation for the economy, as did the lumber industry and the surrounding ranches and farms." "The community's reputation as a divorce center began in 1906 and gambling was legalized in 1931." There is street parking nearby though it will be hard to find during popular hours. [Review 17721 overall - 63 in Nevada - 1242 of 2022.]