The Sarpy County Wellness Court recognizes its first year of operation in March 2022.

On March 8, 2021, the Mental Health Problem-Solving Court accepted its first participant into the program. Throughout the first year of operation, Judge Stefanie Martinez along with Coordinator Creston Ashburn and team members Heather Moran (Problem Solving Court Supervisor), Amanda Fouts (Treatment Probation Officer), Erin Bennett (Problem Solving Court Assistant Probation Officer), Kate Fitzgerald (Sarpy County Attorney’s Office), Christopher Lathrop (Sarpy County Public Defender’s Office), Ashley Berg (Sarpy County Public Defender’s Office Social Worker), Rob Hillabrand (Mental Health Project Coordinator Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office), Ashlie Weisbrodt (Sarpy County Community Corrections), Dean Loftus (Sarpy County Mental Health Diversion), Brad Negrete (Lutheran Family Services), Lori Wiles (Wiles Counseling), Dr. Glenda Cottam (Prairie Family Counseling), Lauren Jaton (Sarpy County Re-Entry Coordinator), Andrea Koehler (Community Alliance) have held weekly meetings to review the progress of court participants and plan for the future of the court. Within the first ten months, the court exceeded its goal of ten participants the first year. 

The court currently has fourteen participants, with two new participants to enter the court on March 25. Five individuals are awaiting screenings for entrance into the Wellness Court. 

The Nebraska Supreme Court approved proposed policies and procedures, establishing the Wellness Court in December 2020. The screening process for clients began in January 2021, and the court welcomed their first participant two months later.

Photo: Creston Ashburn, Problem-Solving Court Coordinator, hands court files to Judge Stefanie Martinez during anniversary month of Nebraska’s first Mental Health Court.