When there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? You don’t want to call the Veterans Administration, that’s for sure. If you were drowning and gasping for air, the VA will shove your head under the water to tie up loose ends. Obviously, not all people at the VA are bad, but there are a few here and there that make all the good employees at the VA look bad.
There’s something strange for sure, that occurred in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Joshua Goodman was a York County resident, and is a 100% disabled Army veteran from the Gulf War. Josh reached out to the VA for help in coping with symptoms related to PTSD. From what we can tell so far, the extent of help Josh got from the VA was to merely send him more prescription drugs through the mail.
One day, Josh began suffering terribly from horrific flashbacks from the war zone. He ran to his neighbor’s house to allegedly plead for help. An altercation ensued between he and his neighbor, and sheriff deputies were called. Josh is now in prison convicted of attempted murder.
Somehow, between asking his neighbor for help and being thrown in jail, Josh was severely beaten. Was it the neighbor’s husband that beat Josh up, or the arresting officers? Or, was Josh beaten in jail by police guards, or possibly by other inmates once he was taken into custody?
It appears the beating occurred while in police custody, because Josh is wearing an orange jumpsuit in both before and after pictures. Sheriff deputies are going to have difficulty claiming Josh suffered his injuries because he resisted arrest?
It’s not likely that sheriff deputies arrived at Josh’s neighbor’s home and said, “Josh, before we arrest and beat the hell out of you, would you mind very much slipping into this snappy prison-orange jumpsuit, so we can get a picture of you while your face is still in good condition?”
Whoa. Wait. What? Josh Goodman became a police officer when he got out of the military. That fact is a new dynamic in mystery as to how Josh Goodman was severely beaten allegedly while in police custody.
Our life experience tells us that police officers tend to resist beating other police officers as a matter of principle. Even if the officer committed a heinous crime, they tend to avoid beating a fellow law enforcement officer. This is the prevailing unwritten policy, unless you were going to rat them out for some illegal misconduct like removing drugs from the evidence locker.
WHERE IS MOM?
Josh’s mother, Mischele Calvert came to support Josh as the penal system was in the process of gobbling him up. Amazingly, Mischele Calvert came up as a missing person. She disappeared from Josh’s home.
Her car was found in a not-so-nice area of Charlotte, North Carolina and the police went out on the local TV with a plea to the public for any information as to what happened to Josh’s mother.
Some believe that she may have discovered something and was murdered for it. No one really knows what happened to Josh’s mother. She literally just vanished.
Right now, Josh’s home is in foreclosure. He is in prison for a long stretch. And, his mother has been missing for months.
WAS RACE A FACTOR?
Most Americans are so sick of people immediately rushing to label someone as racist when sometimes, quite the reverse is true. But, even though America has had tremendous successes to address the problem of racism, we know there will always be some ignorant fool who will hate someone they don’t even know simply because of skin color.
Josh Goodman had always worked hard for his money. He bought a nice home in an upscale, all-White neighborhood. He built a garage just for his boat. A few of the neighbors thought that a Black man with all that money must certainly be a drug-dealer or something nefarious.
Was Josh Goodman railroaded into prison because he was a Black man living in a White neighborhood? Did the police beat the shit out of Josh because of race, or because he knew something and his beating was a warning for him to keep his mouth shut.
It’s all conjecture at this point, but this is something federal authorities should be looking into. The race question needs to be answered, but federal authorities must become involved since his mother may have been kidnapped and taken across state lines to be murdered. Or, maybe she was transported across state lines to be held captive? Was the message; ‘if you talk Josh, your mother dies?’
IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT PTSD
America sends their young to all these little political wars, some lasting 10-20 years or more, then when our injured warriors come home, their lives are sometimes turned upside down. This certainly happened in the Josh Goodman case.
PTSD and symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations, often occur together. In clinical terms, PTSD is described as consisting of four clusters of symptoms:
1. re-experiencing symptoms,
2. avoidance symptoms,
3. negative changes in mood and brain function, and
4. hyperarousal symptoms.
Some mental health professionals believe that the experience of psychotic symptoms should be considered as an addition to that list, given that they commonly occur among people stricken with PTSD.
Psychotic symptoms can be divided into two groups: positive symptoms and negative symptoms.
Positive psychotic symptoms are characterized by the presence of unusual feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. This includes experiences such as hallucinations or delusions.
Hallucinations refer to sensations of something that isn’t really there. An auditory hallucination is an experience of hearing voices that aren’t there. A visual hallucination would involve seeing something that isn’t real.
Tactile hallucinations occur when you feel something that isn’t there. Olfactory and gustatory hallucinations involve the experience of smelling or tasting something that isn’t present.
Delusions are ideas that you believe are true despite the fact that they may be unlikely or odd. For example, you might believe that the CIA is spying on you or that aliens are controlling your behaviors or thoughts.
Disorganized behaviors are also very common with psychosis. You may, for example, make up words, speak in unintelligible ways, or stand in an odd pose.
Negative psychotic symptoms are characterized by the absence of experience. For example, if you have negative symptoms, you may not be emotionally expressive.
You may have difficulty speaking, may not say anything for days on end (called alogia) or be unable to accomplish simple tasks or activities, such as getting dressed in the morning.
You may appear very unmotivated and withdrawn. Mental health professionals often refer to this lack of emotional expression as a person having a “flat affect.”
Flashbacks and dissociation occur commonly with PTSD, and though they are not psychotic symptoms, they share some features with psychosis, including:
In a flashback, you may temporarily lose connection with your present situation, being transported back in time to a traumatic event in your memory. In a severe flashback, you may see, hear, or smell things that other people don’t, consistent with a hallucination. Flashbacks often occur during periods of high stress and can be very frightening to the person experiencing them.
Obviously, PTSD can be very disruptive to your life. In Josh Goodman’s case, his PTSD symptoms apparently contributed significantly to his conviction and prison sentence. Why did the VA abandon this particular war veteran when he needed them most?
WHAT IS A “VETERANS COURT?”
About ten (10) years ago, the VA noticed that too many veterans were ending up in the civilian penal system. The rate of recidivism was extraordinarily high. No one needed to be a rocket scientist to realize that many of America’s vets were suffering from their military experiences.
A veterans’ court is a “special court” which is charged with trying cases of minor offenses which involve veterans, particularly those diagnosed with service-related illnesses, especially like PTSD.
The first veterans’ court was established in 2008 in Buffalo, New York, and has been used as a model for establishments of other veterans’ courts in other parts of the United States.
There were concerns about the judicial system creating a “special class” of individuals, and giving them special treatment not available to everyone else. This would violate our belief in Equal Justice Under Law.
Although the court only deals with misdemeanors, the prosecutors and judges can choose to allow defendants to agree to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, thus reducing the charges.
The system was created to address those veterans who are consistently facing various charges associated with addiction, homelessness and the uniqueness of problems associated with PTSD.
The goal of veterans’ court is to allow the veteran to be rehabilitated to the law-abiding citizen they were before their experience in the military and combat. There are no guaranteed incentives for any participant who satisfactorily completes the program.
Typical incentives do include taking years off of probation and moving from formal to summarized probation. At the completion, fees can be waived, and felonies can be commuted, or judges may expunge charges completely.
The court process is aided by Veterans Justice Outreach representatives from the Veterans Administration. Representatives of the District Attorney’s office, the Public Defender’s office, treatment facilities and probation are also in attendance at every hearing. Each participant is also given a mentor to work one on one with throughout the process.
By all accounts, when the proper justice outreach “team” is established, the concept works beautifully. But what happens when you do your job too well? — You get fired from your job at the VA. Just ask Dr. Alex Juitt who is was the very model of what a Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator is supposed to be.
He was helping veterans left and right, then suddenly the VA walks in and tells him he doesn’t have the right education to be doing the job. How stupid is that?
DR. ALEX JUITT SUDDENLY FIRED FROM HIS JOB
AS A VETERANS JUSTICE OUTREACH COORDINATOR
Bishop, Dr. Alex Juitt, Pastor, Co-Founder, and Executive Director of “The Life” Church, on Wilson Blvd., Columbia, South Carolina. Dr. Juitt is a retired U.S. Army veteran with over twenty years of honorable military service.
Part of his job was to comb the jails looking for any veteran who may be in need of help from the VA. Dr. Juitt was a Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator and Veterans Advocate working for the Veterans Administration. Dr. Juitt was extraordinarily good at his job. In fact, there was no one better.
Dr. Juitt began with the Veterans Justice Outreach Program from its very inception and was trained by those who came up with the concept. Dr. Juitt knew all of the VA programs and benefits that could assist a veteran in trouble.
He, no doubt, has countless stories of how he has helped veterans to turn their life around, and perhaps a story or two of how he literally saved the life of a veteran.
Even though Dr. Alex Juitt is highly respected by hundreds in the civilian justice system as well as the Veterans Administration, some brain-dead bureaucrat suddenly decided that Dr. Juitt just wasn’t educated enough to be performing the job of outreach coordinator.
Without warning, Sherree Colvin, working as Columbia Medical Center’s Social Work Services Chief told Juitt he was being removed from his job, because he did not have a degree in counseling.
Dr. Juitt was summarily fired from his job as a Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator, and forced to accept some other menial job. For one reason or another, the VA did not want Dr. Juitt to speak with, or even see Joshua Goodman.
Maybe his VA supervisors thought that if he saw Goodman’s face all swollen up like a balloon, that Dr. Juitt might start asking questions and that would open Pandora’s Box about how the VA failed in their solemn duty to properly treat Goodman’s PTSD condition.
As far as we know, the Union that Dr. Juitt belonged to has not done much to help him discover the real reason for his dismissal. The VA is in the process of hiring two people to assume the duties that Dr. Juitt was doing all by himself.
In a “brilliant” managerial move by the Columbia VA Medical Center, the entire Veterans Justice Outreach Program in their district has come to a screeching halt since Dr. Juitt was removed from his job.
DR. ALEX JUITT RESPONDS
TO OUR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Dr. Juitt apparently prefers not to make any comment at this time.
We found the timing of his response interesting, because only a few days prior, MilitaryCorruption called the Public Affairs Officer at the Columbia VA Medical Center, asking for their side of the story. We ask them to comment on whether the firing of Dr. Juitt and the Josh Goodman case were connected.
The VA had no intention of responding. They were stalling for time to get their stories in sync. We could hear the squeaking of the covered-wagon wheels all the way over in California, as they began to circle their wagons and hunker down. For some reason, people with something to hide always do that.
MilitaryCorruption.com received an email from Dr. Juitt saying…
Out of a sincere appreciation for my long career in government and an abundance of caution in protecting the oath and promises I made to my employer, the Veterans Administration, I made the decision to pause on my revelations of this story.
As a VA employee, there are certain rights and privileges we have towards Veteran’s records, their personal information as well as to their medical information that is to be, by us as employee’s, held to the strictest of confidence.
This information is known as PII and HIPPA (Personal Identifiable Information and Health Insurance Portability and Insurance Act). We are held to a high standard to protect this information and ensure no outside parties receive this information to protect all parties.
As by rule, as a privileged employee, I am restricted by this Act to employ disseminate, reveal or discuss individuals information, even if I feel otherwise. I am sure you can appreciate this perspective. Only under certain situations and legal conditions shall an employee of the VA be allowed to reveal information under the Protection Rule Act.
Those conditions are if one is legally issued Court order Summons, a Subpoena order or some other legal maneuver. So, as you can see, that with my current employment with the VA, I will not jeopardize my career unduly.
With regards towards my employment in the VA’s Justice Outreach program, my record and reputation speaks for itself. I will let you know this, that I did file a complaint up to the Office of Special Counsel and through the Office of Accountability and Whistle-blower Protection, towards my grievance of the position I held at that time.
Without full assurance otherwise, that’s all I will be able to reveal at this time. This man of God will not be used as a pawn for anyone’s agendas, otherwise. I will be alright because I have the good Lord on my side and He is protecting me from all my enemies on earth as well as from hell.
Our gut tells us that someone other than Dr. Juitt wrote that letter, or gave him the politically and legally correct talking points to insert in his letter.
We didn’t ask Dr. Juitt to betray any oaths he is sworn to. We just wanted to get his perspective. MilitaryCorruption.com doesn’t have any hidden agenda. We only want what is best for all military personnel, whether they be active, separated or retired.
If Dr. Juitt was legitimately removed from his job he performed for the past ten years and never ordered to cutoff all communication with Joshua Goodman, there’s nothing to see her folks, time to move on. But, our senses tell us that something nefarious is going on.
Have you ever heard of the expression, “Something is rotten in Denmark?” The history of this expression is from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Act I, Scene 4: Marcellus (an officer) says “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” having just seen the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the late king of Denmark.
The phrase means, “things are unsatisfactory; there is something wrong.” MilitaryCorruption.com emphatically states there is something very rotten going on in the Dorn VA Medical Center at Columbia, South Carolina.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS…
- Was Joshua Goodman beaten by police authorities while in custody, or did the neighbor cause his injuries?
- Was Dr. Alex Juitt specifically forbidden from having any contact with Josh Goodman which it was his job to do?
- Did the Columbia VA prohibit any VA employee from either communicating with Goodman or speaking at his trial?
- Why did the VA ignore Goodman’s attorney Twana Burris?
- Has Juitt’s Union been pressured to look the other way on this particular case? Why have they not intervened on his behalf?
- Was Josh’s’ mother kidnapped and taken across state lines? Is she being held against her will, or has she been murdered?
- When Josh Goodman reached out for help from the VA, why didn’t they hospitalized him for his severe recurring PTSD related psychotic episodes?
- If Dr. Juitt was not fired from his job, would Goodman and his mother been able to avoid this horrific nightmare?
- Did Sheree Colvin remove Dr. Juitt for other reasons? Are the people interviewing for Dr. Juitt’s former position relatives or cronies of Sheree Colvin?
- Did the York County Sheriff, and/or the Charlotte, NC Chief of Police pressure Director David Omura into removing Dr. Juitt from his position as Outreach Coordinator? Was removing Dr. Juitt from his coordinator’s job designed to cutoff his access to Joshua Goodman?
- Josh Goodman had a VA loan on his home. Why didn’t the VA step in to help Goodman keep his home? Did Social Work Services do all they could for Goodman
We ask our readers in North and South Carolina to provide us any information about this matter, that might help us shed light on this case. All of our questions may have logical and reasonable answers. Who knows, maybe the VA and sheriff’s department did everything correctly. Then again, maybe there is much more to this story than anyone knows and many people are culpable.
Stay tuned for the next article on what appears to be, possible police brutality, suspicious disappearance of Mischelle Calvert and a MAJOR SCREW-UP by the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina.
