Robert Blume

A veteran of the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan was sentenced Thursday to 15 to 30 months in jail and 24 years of probation for aggravated assault and a string of thefts which supplied what his lawyer called a serious heroin addiction.

According to police reports, Robert R. Blume, 34, of Aliquippa, assaulted Cranberry Township police officer Edward Steinmetz, who was trying to arrest him on Halloween in 2016 for stealing video games at Walmart and selling them to Game Stop in the Cranberry Mall. Steinmetz found Blume at the game store, but Blume was able to get away by fighting Steinmetz.

“At one point, the momentum of Blume's body and my body caused us to strike a storefront window in that corner of the store, causing the window to crack and spider from top to bottom,” Steinmetz wrote in the complaint.

Blume was eventually arrested on Thanksgiving that same year and charged in six separate cases, most of which related to theft, including an aggravated assault charge for attacking the officer.

Blume's ability to escape from police was more than just a lucky move. He had training in the U.S. military, where he served two tours of duty in Iraq and a third tour in Afghanistan, according to his lawyer, Stephen Misko, who spoke during Blume's sentencing Thursday in front of county Judge William Shaffer.

Blume stood by in a yellow jumpsuit from the county jail, while Misko noted that his client faces charges in nine other cases in Beaver County — also related to thefts — and all to fuel his addiction.

Misko said that Blume's military service was in active combat zones, adding how during his last combat tour, Blume was injured by an improvised explosive device, causing him to have a brain injury. Misko said that Blume also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

To treat the pain, Misko said, Blume was given pain relief medication. He became addicted to the medication and later turned to heroin.

“He's fighting the addiction. God knows what he's been through,” Misko said. “Mr. Blume is a good man. Further incarceration wouldn't help him.”

Blume's sentencing Thursday was the end of a long road that started with retail thefts in 2015. Shaffer sentenced Blume in all six cases. The combined sentencing resulted in the decades-long probation sentences.

The jail time is for the aggravated assault case. One of the other cases got him 3 to 6 months in jail for forgery, but he was immediately paroled after receiving credit for time served.

But jail wasn't part of Blume's original deal with prosecution. He failed to complete a program offered in Butler court that would have kept him out of jail.

After Blume's arrest, he was admitted into a specialty court for veterans. Known as Veterans Court, the program offers people an alternative to jail time if they stay clean from drugs and cooperate with probation officers. The program is headed by the probation office and gets help from VA Butler Healthcare.

Blume entered the Veterans Court program in November 2017, which allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. The other charges, including four felonies, were dropped.

Blume started drug treatment while incarcerated and was released from Butler County Prison Jan. 31 to continue his treatment at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to public court documents. However, he discharged himself from the facility Feb. 21 — before his release date — which resulted in his being rearrested.

According to the documents, Blume failed several drug tests and failed to appear for random drug tests. This led the probation office, which runs the Veterans Court, to request Blume be revoked from the treatment court in March, meaning Blume again faced all of his original charges in the aggravated assault case.

“I've slipped up and relapsed, but recovery is a process,” Blume said at his sentencing. “And I'm not done trying.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about one in 10 returning veterans seen by the VA from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have a problem with alcohol or other drugs. And those numbers are reflected in the people being served at Butler's VA, according to Tom Laton, associate chief of staff for behavioral health services for the facility.

“The issue with PTSD is obviously the exposure to a very serious or life-threatening traumatic experience,” Laton said. “For a veteran, this may occur in the course of their service and the issue is it just continues in terms of symptoms. That can be very debilitating. One of the outcomes can certainly be a use of substance abuse and or alcohol as symptoms remain untreated and intensify.”

Laton urged veterans suffering from PTSD or any other medical problem to visit the VA as early as possible. Laton declined to comment on Blume's case.

“I think any system providing services grows as it continues,” Laton said in response to whether or not he considered Blume's case a failure. “I think we're doing that. It's clinical care. That's the only way we can get better. That's really our focus.”