Raise legal funds for a War VET

If you are about Veterans rights and the 1st amendment, I would like you to meet my friend Kevin, a disabled Gulf War Vet that was honorably discharged from the Navy and Coast Guard in 2002. Kevin is a really good friend of mine and my Husband Steve. The kind of friend that has your back 100%. He is loyal to the core and wears his heart on his sleeve.

I remember asking him one day why he wasn’t going to the VA and in true Kevin fashion he was putting others needs before his own, he didn't think that he needed any help from the VA because he wasn’t missing any limbs. He didn’t feel as though he should be using up its valuable resources that could be better allocated to soldiers that "actually" need help, but as the years passed the mental and physical adjustment from military to civilian life only grew harder.

In 2012 he met his awesome wife that he commonly refers to as his saving grace and she eventually talked him into going to the VA and despite the rumors and horror stories that he had heard, everything seemed to go to plan. He got service connected and appointments were made with little to no problems. The most frustrating part was finding the right doctors. Anyone dealing with a mental illness can attest to the difficulty of this process. To make matters worse he had to relive the traumas he faced in his career, with every new interaction.

I don’t know why it always needs to be this hard, but it seems like that is just the way it is.

Kevin kept plugging along, trusting the process. He finally “settled” on a doctor he was mostly comfortable with and never had any major issues till December 2022 and here is where this story Really begins and the atrocities start to rear their ugly heads

I’m sure like most of us, 2021 was a rough year. Him and his wife both lost their mothers to cancer, the family got the Rona and he spent a month on oxygen. To this very day he is still trying to recover from it. Needless to say he needed a break from the VA, so he asked his doctors to put through refills on all his meds and have them shipped to him. He was assured that would be no problem, and when he was ready to come back, it would be like picking up where he left off. Just call and make an appointment they said…

In December 2022 he made the call for mental and primary care only to be told that they could not make him any appointments, he was then told to go in that same day for an appointment and that they were sorry for the inconvenience. On his way there he was called by the hospital, to cancel. He drove over an hour to get there, and by this point, was only 5 minutes out. He decided to go in anyway, and see what could be done in person. He was Forced to go to the ER. After that mess the doctor assured him someone would be reaching out. On the absolute verge, he shared with the ER doctor his mental state. He was instructed to go straight to the Mental Health wing and tell them some magical words in the exact order that the doctor told him to say and he would be seen immediately. So that’s what he did. He was denied access to emergency mental health care. They tried to push him off, with an appointment for over 2 months out, and told him he would not been seen by his previously established Dr.

This is very traumatic for people dealing with PTSD and other mental illnesses. They clearly had no regard for his well being or life.

They told him to drive an hour more to a clinic if he “really needed help”. Then he was escorted out by VA police. He went back to the ER with the police in tow and explained what had happened. They assured him that this would all be sorted out by the next day. Next day came and went with no resolution. Not even a call.

Kevin knew, at this point, he would have to be his own advocate, for his own mental health. So he went back, seeking help. This time he was armed with a witness and his phone camera. Suddenly it was all sunshine and rainbows, and people magically were able to help him. He got a mental health appointment for that very same day and only 2 hours from the time he arrived. He then went to primary care to find the doctor that told him everything would be taken care of, he was rudely dismissed and was told “that’s not my job” by the receptionist

He was eventually seen, and was forced to file complaints through the patient care advocate for the way he was treated and dismissed while going through a mental health crisis. He attended all subsequent appointments with strange doctors that seemed to just want to pick up where he left off but not address any of the current problems. He started to feel singled out. He was reprimanded for how he wore his mask, even though everyone else was wearing it the same way. He pointed this out to them, and from there it went downhill fast. He was then denied medical services, and threatened with police. The second he mentioned needing to record any further interactions, for his own protection, all hell broke loose, and he was kicked out of primary care and told that they have 10 days to find him a new doctor.

That never happened. He, once again, had to go in person and was told they could not help him. He was approached by hospital staff and was asked if he was recording. When he told them he was, that staff member left and returned with another who apologized for everything that had happened to date, and made him an appointment.

When he showed up for that appointment the VA police were waiting for him and arrested him for wiretapping. He is currently charged with 8 counts of felony wiretapping and in, what seems to be, retaliation for holding them accountable for their actions and disgusting behavior, the VA is trying to send him to prison for 40 years. Kevin has spent 30k in lawyers’ fees, to date, and they are not even past the discovery phase, unfortunately, it gets worse. He was denied access to the hospital and forced to find (out of network) mental health care, he contacted his representatives, congress, FBI, DOJ, AG, OIG and anyone else with a government email address. His family has called the Veterans CRISIS HOTLINE, the Whitehouse HOTLINE and told them Kevin needed immediate mental care.

No one contacted him for nearly 2 months. And some have yet to reply. He has since found mental health care outside of network, with no help from the VA.

Please, if you can, help in any way, it would be greatly appreciated. He is a VET and deserves our support for his service. He is a good man and helps everyone he can. Now it is his turn. It will be very costly to fight these charges and secure his freedom.