7 individuals celebrated for successful completion of New Way to Recovery Drug Court Docket

Seven graduates were honored for their successful completion of the New Way to Recovery Drug Court Docket of the Highland County Common Pleas Court in the program’s sixth graduation ceremony Sunday, Oct. 27 at Carpenters House of Prayer.

The latest graduates are Arnell Johnson, Dean Murray, Harley Mussetter, Justyn Osborne, Karie Price, Kimra Snyder and Alissa Young. The guest speaker for the graduation ceremony was Anthony Gillingham, a 2023 graduate from the program.

According to Highland County Probation Director of Programming & Clinical Services and Drug Court Coordinator Tonya Sturgill, there have been 97 admissions and 24 unsuccessful terminations since the drug court began, while 47 individuals have successfully completed the program thus far.

The first drug court session was held in August 2019, and the program includes four phases that take a minimum of 18 months to complete.

The October 2024 graduates include individuals who were admitted to the drug court docket in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with many of them having experience with the probation department for over a decade.

“It is these men and women who put in the hard work every single day to not only stay clean and sober but to accomplish so many great things along the way,” Sturgill said. “They deserve all the credit.

“This group of seven has made some amazing accomplishments during their time in our program.”

According to Sturgill, of the seven graduates, Osborne was in the program the longest — joining just over three years ago, in September 2021 — and “has had quite a few ups and downs and even a couple of close calls.” Today, Sturgill said that Osborne is “committed to living a healthier, more productive lifestyle and ready to move on to the next phase of his journey with his wife and soon-to-be three beautiful kids.”

Price, who has had involvement with the probation department since 2012, was “given a second chance at life and at drug court” after moving out of inpatient treatment and relapsing, suffering an overdose. Sturgill said she is “very proud” that Price is now employed, renting a home, raising a child and has been clean for 21 months.

Murray is another individual whom Sturgill said was given a “second chance,” this time by Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss, after Murray walked out of his treatment facility. Since then, Murray has gained both steady employment and housing and “is a completely different person,” Sturgill said.

Sturgill referred to Snyder as “a challenge” in her first few months with the drug court program, but she “turned a corner and got to work meeting her goals.” Since being admitted to the docket in March 2023, Snyder has regained custody of her children; she and her husband have purchased a home and added a child to their family; and she has also obtained a professional license, Sturgill said.

Johnson has “proved his doubters wrong” by successfully completing the program in two years despite building “quite a reputation in the courts,” including at one point faking being deaf during a Common Pleas Court hearing. Sturgill said Johnson has “embraced a fresh start in a new town where he completely transformed his life.”

Also impressing Sturgill was Mussetter, who managed the “very rare accomplishment” of never failing a drug test during his time with the program. Upon leaving residential treatment, Mussetter worked hard to get a license for a new job, bought a car, has remained gainfully employed and is “an active and involved father.”

Young was “as close to beaten and broken as anyone we’ve ever had” in the program, Sturgill said, and had a difficult start by working on her sobriety from home instead of residential treatment. Since April 2023, Young has managed to not only beat her addiction, but she has gotten a job, healed relationships with her family and is a “fully present, supportive, active mother.”  Young “has shown more emotional growth and gained more insight the last 18 months than most people do in a lifetime,” Sturgill said.

As previously reported, according to Coss, “the mission of the drug court docket is to enhance public safety by preventing recidivism; assisting participants in taking responsibility for their behavioral health issues by turning them from a path of self-destruction to a path of recovery; creating a continuum of approved treatment and rehabilitation services through community programs that meet the needs of participants; and using evidence-based practices in intervention and treatment of substance abuse and other co-occurring mental disorders or medical issues that offenders may have.”

Sturgill thanked Coss for his continued efforts to ensure the program’s success.

Also thanked were Jon Parr and Kim Davis of the Probation Department, as well as the treatment providers who assist with the program, including: The Recovery Council (FRS); The Counseling Center; Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health; PATH Behavioral Healthcare; STAR Community Justice Center; Another Chance Ministries; REACH For Tomorrow; and Clean Acres.

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