It was with great pride that four individuals last Tuesday gathered with others in the Osage County Treatment Court Program to celebrate their graduation following many months of strict adherence to rules and random drug or alcohol tests, along with counseling and positive reinforcement.

Franklin County Judge Joseph Purschke was the treatment court judge for these graduates from the beginning through the successful completion of the program.

“After this program, that’s when we’re most worried about our graduates,” he said. “Who’s going to be there to support them and are all the systems in place to support them after this program? The answer is yes, but you’ve gotta find it. Congratulations to the graduates.”

Osage County Judge Sonya Brandt has assumed leadership of the program and said she is pleased with the progress made by those within it.

“I have been very impressed with the high caliber and commitment of the treatment professionals, probation officers, and our administrator that work on our team to assist the participants, as well as the effort our participants put into the treatment court program,” she said. “Treatment court is demanding, and the graduates can be extremely proud of this achievement. I think many people aren't aware of the time commitment for the participants, and the behavior modification component of the program. I have enjoyed working with everyone involved and look forward to speaking at the next graduation and congratulating the next class.”

Sherry Huxol is the treatment court administrator, and is joined by probation officers Mike Ninness and Erin Schmutz, and treatment counselor Robert Fregalette.

One of the graduates, Jason Roberson, of Argyle, completed the program in 16 months. Roberson was facing his third felony drug charge and worked hard for this alternative to 10 years in prison.

He was on bond for two and a half years while he cleaned up his act. “It’s not easy but it can be done,” he said. “I did everything I was supposed to so I could have a chance at treatment court.”

Struggling from chemical addiction, Roberson embraced Celebrate Recovery as he handled the demands of the treatment court’s program. “It was a totally different world,” he said. “The hammer had been put down and I knew what would happen if I screwed up.”

Each day, as part of the court’s alternative program, Roberson was required to call a drug line, and he would be told two or three times a week to report for a drug test.

“Getting clean was the easy part,” said Roberson. “The hard part was understanding why I needed drugs. I worked on myself because there were so many things wrong.”

Along the way, he said his family, friends, and even the ownership and management at his job have been very supportive. “I couldn’t believe I was offered a chance to be part of the program but I’m very happy I was allowed to do it, and I took full advantage of it,” said Roberson.

For those who are struggling with addiction, he said it’s important to seek help immediately, especially before that lifestyle leads to charges. “Drugs are not the answer,” he said. “You’ll never be free with that lifestyle.”

Graduate Charlie Niebruegge, of Owensville, completed the treatment program for driving while intoxicated, with three convictions for DWI over 10 years.

“I was drinking all the time,” Niebruegge said. “I felt like I was coping with my issues.”

Niebruegge explained he began drinking earnestly while in college and it never stopped.

Fortunately, Niebruegge did not lose family relationships though he lost his job after the second DWI. “After I got my license back, I was working but I wasn’t really happy with the guy I was working for,” he said. “That didn’t help. I had started to drink a little bit too.”

Niebruegge said his employer of the last nine years has been very supportive of his efforts to overcome his addiction.

He added that he hoped to get into the treatment program with the possibility of restoring his driving privileges. “As a graduate of the program, hopefully, in the next few weeks, I will be able to drive myself around again,” he said. “It’s tough not being able to drive.”

Niebruegge entered the program in August of 2019 and said it’s important for anyone battling the bottle to reach out for help.

“If you think you have a problem, find an AA meeting,” he said. “It’s nothing to be scared of, asking for help, and you don’t want to be forced into a program like this. I’ve made a lot of friends here, and I look forward to going to meetings every week as part of my ritual.”

Jeff Cook of Bland, another graduate, was facing his fourth felony DWI charge and had an opportunity to participate in the treatment program. He had been fined and had received probation in previous convictions, but this time he faced four years in state prison.

He never lost a job due to alcohol, and his family has shown support throughout the 14 months he spent in the program. Cook said he’s relieved to have support from his employer as well, especially since required testing is random.

Cook began drinking at the age of 12. “Beer was my life,” he said, adding a bit of advice for others. “Don’t drink like I did. Don’t get behind the wheel like I did. I screwed up but now I’m sober, and my life is much better.”

The final graduate last week was Richard Snodgrass, who was unavailable for an interview.

All four graduates earned a perfect attendance award, along with recognition for having received four or fewer sanctions during his time in the treatment program.

Tim Long III, of Belle, who sponsored Roberson, shared his story of recovery and said it’s important to understand the root of the problem if there’s any hope of success.

“I started Celebrate Recovery as a drug addict only to find out that being a drug addict was a byproduct of a lifelong line of family dysfunction and hurt,” he said. “It was a coping mechanism I used to get through life. Once I got to the root of the true issues, that hurt, life isn’t necessarily easier but it is simpler with Jesus. I know I can be who he wants me to be, who he intended for me to be, not who I pretended to be my whole life.”

Long explained that he is in long-term recovery for chemical addiction and struggles with anger and lust.

“My parents were very young when I was born, and then my mother passed away from a tragic accident when I was 5, and I had a sister that was not quite a year old,” he said. “My dad did the best he could but growing up without a mother definitely had an effect on me. We lived with my grandma and grandpa for a while and I remember the day that I found out my dad did drugs, he was going into treatment. When he got out of treatment, we bought a house down the street from my grandma. My dad was always a hard worker. He worked enough we were with grandma a lot but he was also a drug dealer.”

At an early age, Long said he was predisposed to the lifestyle. “I was growing up as one of the guys,” he said. “Around the age of 11, my dad moved in with my soon-to-be stepmom and her three kids. I felt my space was invaded and this was a change for me. The oldest of her kids was a daughter three months younger than me and she introduced me to sex. I have come to realize that this was the start of a sexual addiction. For the next few years, I grew up fast and hard. I knew my way around the city by the back alleys or sewers, making deliveries of money and getting in fights. I didn’t get along with kids my age. I felt I was above them. This in turn I have realized fueled my need for power. At the age of 14, after having a gun pulled on me three different times, I started carrying a gun myself. The neighborhood had gotten pretty rough. The only place safe for me to hang out was the local bar that my uncle worked at. This put me right in the mix of drugs, money, and women.”

Long began high school outside the city because his father thought it would be a better place for him to acquire his education and he could no longer afford to pay for private schooling.

“High school went by fast and my dad’s addiction got worse,” Long said. “He cared more about his addiction than work or even dealing drugs. My stepmom moved out and my biological sister moved with her. We lost everything. I was homeless with only my truck and very little money. I drug my dad out of a crackhouse for the last time. I despised drugs and swore that would never be me. I took drastic measures in my neighborhood to insure my dad wasn’t sold anymore drugs and he got clean again for a while. I graduated high school and my dad and I moved out of the city and in with my stepmom.”

Having attended a Catholic school, Long said he knew of God but didn’t have a relationship with Him. “But He was watching out for me,” Long added. “I was offered a scholarship to go to college and be on the rodeo team in Dodge City, Kan. I was free. I was on my way to being a professional bull rider and free of my past, or so I thought. There were always girls at the rodeos and then drugs also became a part of my rodeo life. I used speed to stay up driving all night to hit rodeos from town to town. It didn’t take long before drugs were more important than rodeo. I got injured and I moved back to the city where it all started.”

During this time, he learned to cook methamphetamine and was using with his dad in a new addiction. “My life was the definition of insanity,” Long said. “I was repeating the life I had seen years ago. By this time I was 21, and the next four years went by pretty quick, with drugs, money, and women. I had to move out of the city, I was going to end up in trouble or dead. I had to move away from the people, places, and things that I knew. I needed a change. I packed up and moved to my grandma and grandpa’s farm, a couple of hours from the city. Here comes the repeat. I got a job and ran into the same lifestyle I was trying to run away from, same story different town. Until I met this girl that knew nothing about this lifestyle I was living and I really wanted to change, so I did. I fell in love, had a baby on the way. And I know that isn’t the way it is supposed to go but that is how it went.”

Tim and his wife, Anna, moved to be closer to her family. The next year, a pregnancy ended in a stillbirth. “We got pregnant again as soon as we were allowed by doctors and had a second daughter,” Long explained. “When our youngest was a year old, we endured a house fire and literally lost everything. Together, we seemed to be able to handle anything. I had put down the drugs but I continued to be a social drinker for eight years. I had it all: a retirement job, cars, boats, motorcycles, as well as my own business. I was living the ‘All-American Dream.’ Then it happened. One of my cousins got out of jail and we were building him a motorcycle. He was high and I could tell he was high. I thought it had been long enough that one line wouldn’t hurt me. As they say, one is too many and 1,000 is never enough. The tidal wave hit me. I was back in my addiction. My wife had no clue. Around the same time, I started hanging out with a motorcycle club and then worked through the process of becoming a member. The club expected the club to be first, before family or job. Eventually, I became vice president of a charter started in my area. This allowed me more time away from home and to reach further into my addiction. It also included time at bars and strip clubs. Nobody knew what I was doing. I played it well for a while.”

Tim and Anna had been together for more than nine years, during which he worked and came home, and everything was fine. “My wife was completely naïve to the fact that I was using until I decided to quit coming home,” said Long. “My wife found out I was cheating on her. I didn’t lie and didn’t try to hide it. I just packed my bags and moved out. During this time, I lost my job of almost 10 years.”

For a while, he went back and forth home, and the next two years were an all-out war between Tim and Anna, whom he described as being codependent to him, and he was stuck in his addictions.

“After losing my job and then losing the club, this put me in a giant downward spiral,” said Long. “I had become the man that I did not want to be. I started dealing to support my habit. And like anything else, I had to be the top dog at it. Again, me and my power trips. I would be gone for days and then sleep for days and wake up angry. My verbal abuse and physical abuse got to an all-time high. In one incident, I almost killed my wife. After all my continuing actions, my wife had no choice but to take the kids and move. This now left me with no accountability to anyone.”

People came and went from his home until I lost it, along with his car and most of his possessions because Long didn’t take them with him.

“I spent all the money I was making dealing back on drugs and the lifestyle,” he said. “I either slept in my truck or wherever I could stay. I was a loose cannon, stuck in my addiction and the walls were closing in. I was running out of time. I had lost it all. History was repeating itself. I was ready to die. I had planned on going out in a blaze of glory, instead, I ended up in jail and for the first time in my life I hit my knees and openheartedly asked God to take this from me and I promised I would never go back to the street. Throughout this time my wife had been attending church and though I didn’t know it, she had been praying for me the whole time. Praying that I would be the man God made me to be, whether it included her in my life or not. I got out of jail and I was living in somebody’s basement, had no job, no money, and my wife had filed for divorce. I found myself turning back to the street. My effort to see my daughters was lacking, and when I did it was usually an argument or they would see things they shouldn’t.”

At times when he visited his daughters, they would ask him to go to church. Long decided to go to church with them on June 1, 2014, and he was arrested in the parking that day after services for a warrant he didn’t know existed.

However, he continued to go to church with his daughters. On June 14, Long couldn’t take the guilt of trying to renege on his promise to God. That was his first full day clean and sober. “My wife and I were a couple of weeks from getting divorced at this point and the church was starting a recovery program at the end of the month,” Long said.

The church started a recovery ministry and the pastor did the eight-week Celebrate Recovery (CR) sermon series on Sundays. Some weeks went by and the divorce hearing was approaching.

“My wife was very emotional during this time, dealing with her own issues,” said Long. “Starting to realize what her issues were, I reassured her that I wanted her to do what she needed to do to heal. Putting her trust in God, she was willing to cancel the divorce.”

Early in recovery, Long had to deal with a lot of issues with the law that he had let go during his addiction. “It could have just been something as simple as a speeding ticket but I wouldn’t pay it or show up to court and I would end up with a warrant,” he explained. “I would get arrested for one thing and they would find another. I didn’t have a license or a job but I now had a good support system and we dealt with old routine habits and created new ones. My wife was always willing to help fill time when I started feeling restless. I kept myself accountable for my time and my actions. I was mindful of where I should and shouldn’t be or if I felt the need to be somewhere I had an accountability partner with me. Together with God, I patiently worked through all situations with the law. God was starting to move in a big way in my life. The program that they were starting was Celebrate Recovery. I started to understand what a relationship with God was and realized how much he had been there with me even when I had turned my back on him. When I got clean I had to change all the people, places, and things again and from time to time I would run into old friends or people I ran the streets with, I would always offer support if I ran into them.”

One day, he had an encounter with an old running partner who had just gotten out of jail. He told me he wasn’t sure what to think when I approached him, but he was relieved to see that I was handing him a card for Celebrate Recovery. I became part of CR leadership and I had fully opened my heart to God. He is now at the forefront of everything I do. I am blessed to say that all things were reconciled and our family was made stronger than ever, thanks to the Lord. I praise God every day for the restoration he provided and I work to never take the gift for granted.”

Long, who has been sober and clean for almost seven years, believes that his faith has made it possible to not only stay clean but to help others do the same.

“I have learned to let God have control and try to be conscious of times when I may be trying to take over,” he said. “I know I am not perfect and neither is this world so I will always be a work in progress. I have learned to make amends quickly because letting anything fester only creates anger or bitterness. I have learned to give grace and forgiveness because it was given to me and I share my story without fear of judgment.”

Long added that he works every day to fulfill Principle 8: “Yield myself to God to be used to bring this good news to others, both by my example and by my words,” and Step 12: “Having had a spiritual experience as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.”

Long said he and his wife have learned to be transparent and center our home around God. “I can say that there is rarely a conversation in our home that does not include Him,” he added.

They currently lead the Celebrate Recovery (CR) ministry at Bland Christian Church, and Anna is a CR State Rep for Central Missouri. While attending a one-day training seminar, Long met a couple of bikers who were wearing “Broken Chains” patches. “We have a lot of motorcycles parked outside on Friday nights at our CR meetings and also Sunday morning at church, and many of the guys always said CR needed a motorcycle club,” he said. “I always said I was never wearing a patch again because of what it was in my past. I talked with the guys promoting Broken Chains JC and learned that it was a part of Celebrate Recovery. They didn’t have any members from Missouri yet. I remember telling God how funny he was because I had said I was never putting on a patch again but now felt called to do this.”

Long is now the Missouri point of contact for Broken Chains, what members call “Celebrate Recovery in the Wind.”

“We are a fellowship of bikers who found hope and healing in Jesus Christ through the ministry of Celebrate Recovery and we work to help others realize that change is possible,” Long said. “My wife and I work every day to share what God and Celebrate Recovery have done for us. To the newcomer, I can say a lot, because I can’t imagine my life any other way, so if you bring the body enough times the mind will follow, so keep coming back.”

CR meetings are held each Friday night at Bland Christian Church.