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Lou Olivera
CNN Screenshot
Cumberland County, N.C judge Lou Olivera had a tough choice to make. He knew that Sgt. Joseph Serna had served nearly two decades in U.S. Army having done four tours in Afghanistan and was almost killed three times. Since returning from war, Serna’s latest battle has been with alcoholism and PTSD. Olivera presides over Cumberland County’s Veterans Treatment Court where he has seen Serna some 25 times, WRAL reports.
But as Serna stood before the judge last week where he admitted that he violated his probation when he lied about a urine test, Olivera made the tough decision to sentence Serna to a day in prison.
“When Joe first came to turn himself in, he was trembling,” Olivera told the Fayetteville Observer. “I decided that I’d spend the night serving with him.”
“Where are we going judge,” Serna reportedly asked.
“We’re going to turn ourselves in,” the judge said.
Olivera drove Serna to the jail, which is a county over and walked inside.
“The judge comes in … and so we’re sitting there and they lock the door and I realized, oh, we’re going to stay the night, Serna told the news station. “He’s going to stay the night here with me.”
The two men shared a one-man cell and sitting on the cot talking about their military service.
“It was more of a father-son conversation as opposed to a judge talking to someone and sentencing them, Serna told WRAL. “It was personal.”
Olivera said that the two shared stories about their shared experiences. He added that he’s never spent the night in prison with someone he has sentenced and doesn’t know if he would do it again but in this one instance, he believed in the power of camaraderie.
“They have worn the uniform and we know they can be contributing members of society,” said Olivera who served in the Gulf War. “We just want to get them back there.”
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