How our Broken Probation System Trapped a Purple Heart Recipient in a Cycle of Poverty and Incarceration
The Washington Post today highlighted the tragic story of Sean Worsley, a 33-year-old veteran who served in the U.S. military for five years — including a 14-month deployment in Iraq — and was awarded a Purple Heart.
The main focus of the story is Sean’s legal use of medical marijuana to treat his PTSD and other injuries sustained as a member of the armed forces. The article reveals how Sean, an Arizona resident, was arrested in Alabama during a road trip with his wife to visit family. After Sean and his wife, Eboni, stopped to get gas, an officer told Sean the music from his car was too loud. Sean promptly turned his music down, but the officer then said he noticed the smell of marijuana and asked to search the car. Again, Sean complied, thinking he had no reason to worry since he had his medical marijuana card with him. However, the officer informed Sean that the product was not approved for use in Alabama and arrested him. Thus, began Sean’s nightmarish descent into a criminal justice system that has left him broke, homeless, and currently incarcerated in Alabama. All stemming from his safe use of a product that has been legalized in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
But the story is not just about our inconsistent drug laws; it’s also a powerful indictment of our broken probation system. After their initial arrest, Sean and Eboni spent six days in an Alabama jail. According to the Washington Post, “after being released on bond, the couple’s legal nightmare seemed to be over.”
But almost a year later, the bail bondsman called back with a dire message: The Pickens County judge was revoking bonds on all his cases. That meant they had to rush back from Arizona, he told the couple, or they would be charged with failing to appear in court.
They hustled and drove back overnight to Alabama, where the Worsleys were split up and taken to separate rooms for questioning — even though, as Eboni insisted to authorities, her husband’s disabilities meant he needed a legal guardian to help make him an informed decision.
“They said no, and they literally locked me in a room separate from him,” Eboni Worsley told Leah Nelson, the Alabama Appleseed researcher who wrote the report. “They told him that if he didn’t sign the plea agreement that we would have to stay incarcerated until December and that they would charge me with the same charges as they charged him.”
It was that threat that caused Worsley to give in and sign the plea agreement: 60 months of probation, drug treatment and thousands of dollars in fines.
But in February 2019, he missed a court date in Pickens County. The local probational program cut short his supervision, citing “failure to attend” and “failure to pay court-ordered moneys.” And it wasn’t until months later, according to the Appleseed report, that he learned from the Department of Veterans Affairs that Alabama had issued a fugitive warrant for his arrest.
That warrant ultimately led to Sean sitting in an Alabama jail today, facing five years in state prison. But the probation system certainly didn’t do Sean any favors in the lead up to his arrest. Remember, probation is supposed to give people the support they need to exit the justice system and get back on their feet. In Sean’s case, it acted as more of a trap door back to jail. From Alabama Appleseed:
Sean’s plea agreement included 60 months of probation, plus drug treatment and thousands of dollars in fines, fees, and court costs. Because the Worsleys had lived in Arizona at the time of their arrest, his probation was transferred to Arizona, instead of Nevada, where they lived. Transferring it again would mean another lengthy delay and more jail time while the paperwork was sorted out, they were told.
Sean could not bear to stay. The Worsleys got a two-week pass from the probation officer in Alabama, drove home, broke their lease, and packed their things. When they arrived in Arizona, the only housing they could find on short notice was a costly month-to-month rental. Their funds were depleted, but at least they had a place to stay.
The Worsleys were ready to start rebuilding their lives. But when they checked in with the Arizona probation officer, she told them that their month-to-month rental did not constitute a permanent address. She would not approve it for purposes of supervision and told them to contact probation in Alabama. They did, and the Alabama probation officer told them they would have to return to Pickens County to sign paperwork to redo the transfer. They didn’t have the money to do that, so they asked their Alabama lawyer if it could be done by proxy and proceeded with attempting to comply with the other terms of Sean’s probation.
Among those was drug treatment. Had he been an Alabama resident, Sean would have participated in mandatory programming through Alabama’s Court Referral, one of several diversion programs operating across the state. The terms of his probation required him to seek similar services where he lived, so in February 2018, Sean went to the VA to take an assessment for placement in drug treatment.
The VA rejected him. A letter from VA Mental Health Integrated Specialty Services reads in part, “Mr. Worsley reports smoking Cannabis for medical purposes and has legal documentation to support his use and therefore does not meet criteria for a substance use disorder or meet need for substance abuse treatment.”
The Worsleys maintained contact with their Alabama lawyer and probation officer as best they could, but things were difficult. Eboni, a certified nursing assistant who works with traumatized children, had a job offer rescinded due to the felony charge in Alabama. She also lost her clearance to work with sensitive information to which she needed access to do her job. For a while, the Worsleys slept in their car or lived with family.
In January 2019, they again found themselves homeless. They requested assistance from a program that helps homeless veterans. Just as they completed the six-month program, the VA notified Sean that his benefits would be stopped because Alabama had issued a fugitive warrant for his arrest. Unknown to Sean, he had missed a February court date in Pickens County and the Pickens County Supervision Program had terminated his supervision, citing “failure to attend” and “failure to pay court-ordered moneys.” The case was referred to the district attorney’s office in March 2019.
The Worsleys were in a terrible situation. Eboni needed heart surgery, and Sean had to stop taking on extra gigs so he could help her recover. Rent was expensive, anywhere from $1,200-$1,500 a month, and they had a car loan as well. To cover costs, the couple took out a title loan, but they were unable to keep up with it. They lost Eboni’s truck. They lost their home and again had to move into a temporary rental, paying $400 a week to live in a suburb about an hour from the hospital where Eboni still had frequent appointments.
Sean was able to get his check started up again around August 2019, but the financial hole they were in was so deep that he didn’t have the $250 to renew his medical marijuana card. It expired.
In early 2020, Sean was pulled over on his way to Eboni’s sister’s home, where he was going to help with a minor repair. He had some marijuana with him. The officers who pulled him over noticed he was terrified. They asked him why. According to Eboni, he told them everything: about this PTSD, his traumatic brain injury, the expired card, the outstanding warrant from Alabama. The officers told him not to worry; Alabama would never extradite him over a little marijuana. It would be OK.
But when they called to make sure, Alabama said it wanted to bring Sean back to Pickens County. When the Arizona police told him, he ran. He fell. He was taken to jail, and eventually, he was transported to Pickens County at a cost to the state of Alabama of $4,345. The state moved to make Sean pay that money himself, on top of the $3,833.40 he already owed in fines, fees, and court costs.
Sean has been in the Pickens County jail since early 2020. On April 28, the judge revoked his probation and sentenced him to 60 months in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections.
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In a letter to Alabama Appleseed from the Pickens County jail, Sean expressed despair at being away from his children and from Eboni. He feels humiliated at having to call them from jail, crushed that he is, as he put it, “letting them down” over an arrest stemming from efforts he was making to keep himself healthy. “I feel like I’m being thrown away by a country I went and served for,” he wrote. “I feel like I lost parts of me in Iraq, parts of my spirit and soul that I can’t ever get back.”
A young father and veteran whose life has already been upended over a victimless mistake, Sean Worsley could spend the next five years behind bars. Sean served his country admirably, putting his life on the line and paying a steep price for it. But when it came to serving Sean, our country completely and utterly failed him. We can and must do better.
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