{"id":202844,"date":"2026-02-18T22:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=202844"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:44:43","slug":"ceremony-held-for-latest-graduates-of-camo-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/02\/18\/ceremony-held-for-latest-graduates-of-camo-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceremony held for CAMO Court graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two local veterans have become the seventh and eighth graduates of Van Wert Municipal Court\u2019s Veterans Court, commonly referred to as CAMO (Courts Assisting Military Offenders) Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sgt. Thomas Losh (U.S. Air Force) and Sgt. Keith Ratliff (U.S. Army) were honored during a brief ceremony held in the Van Wert Municipal Court courtroom Wednesday morning Family members, treatment team members, court officials and others gathered for the ceremony, which was led by Van Wert Muncipal Court Chief Probation Officer\/Van Wert County Veterans Court Director John Wiley and Judge Jill T. Worthington. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Shown from left to right are Van Wert Muncipal Court Chief Probation Officer\/Van Wert County Veterans Court Director John Wiley, CAMO Court graduate Tom Losh and Judge Jill T. Worthington. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

CAMO Court is designed to help veterans who have been charged with crimes related to alcohol and\/or substance abuse. It provides necessary  treatment and support to those in the program, and has a high success rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefendants are screened for CAMO Court and they can be referred to us by law enforcement, corrections or when they identify as veterans upon their initial appearance at the court,\u201d Wiley explained. \u201cThey go through a risk assessment and a substance abuse\/mental health evaluation.  Once that is complete, Judge Worthington accepts or rejects them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiley also noted that Van Wert\u2019s CAMO Court is the smallest one in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Losh and Ratliff thanked everyone involved with the program for their support and guidance and both men admitted when they started the program, it was a challenge for all involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did not make it easy,\u201d Losh stated. \u201cI had to screw up to get here so it\u2019s hard to feel proud but at at the same time I know I came a long way and I couldn\u2019t have done it without everybody that\u2019s part of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also offered some pushback when I started this program,\u201d Ratliff told those in attendance. \u201cIt took probably a couple of months before I bought into this system and I immediately started seeing results. It\u2019s got me where I am today\u2026I\u2019m not done with this program \u2013 I\u2019d like to come back and mentor, I\u2019d like to come back and share what I learned and help people down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a path to the finish line,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Losh and Ratliff were each presented with a framed certificate, a gift basket and special military jackets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guest speaker was Chris Dziubeck, Brigadier General (Ret.), who retired in 2023 after a 33-year military career. He now serves as a Veterans Service Officer in Lucas County. He offered brief remarks and encouragement and said he\u2019s taking what he\u2019s learned about Van Wert\u2019s CAMO Court back to Lucas County.<\/p>\n\n\n

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CAMO Court graduate Keith Ratliff is flanked by Wiley and Judge Worthington. Scott Truxell photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Two local veterans have become the seventh and eighth graduates of Van Wert Municipal Court\u2019s Veterans Court, commonly referred to as CAMO (Courts Assisting Military Offenders) Court. Sgt. Thomas Losh (U.S. Air Force) and Sgt. Keith Ratliff (U.S. Army) were honored during a brief ceremony held in the Van Wert Municipal Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 03:53:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202844"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202901,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202844\/revisions\/202901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}