WOODLAND — You could say Crystal Reta’s road to recovery had a few detours, and some potholes to boot.
She first fell into methamphetamine addiction at age 16, and “the relationship that I was in kind of kept me in that life,” she said.
Her pregnancy with her first child halted her drug dependency for 13 years, but a failed marriage, lack of employment and threat of homelessness brought Reta’s demons back.
Still, she managed to find employment, and rented a car to transport herself to and from work. Then, she lost her job, and her income along with it.
The rental car? “I got scared and just kept it.”
Reta and her boyfriend were leaving the Cache Creek Casino in Brooks one day in June 2017 when a Yolo County sheriff’s deputy stopped them and ran the car’s license plate, revealing it had been reported stolen by the rental company. Her boyfriend already on probation for a prior offense, Reta told the deputy it was she who failed to return the car, and that the heroin and pipes inside belonged to her.
“That put me on my road to recovery,” Reta, a 35-year-old Sacramento resident, said of her arrest that day.
Charged with vehicle theft and drug possession, Reta was offered a spot in Yolo County’s Addiction Intervention Court, a collaborative court program in which participants receive intensive supervision, substance-abuse treatment and other services with the goal of breaking their addictions for good and reducing their likelihood of re-offending.
Through the program, Reta kicked her drug habit and obtained culinary skills that led to a chef’s job at a downtown Sacramento restaurant.
On Tuesday, a nearly full courtroom of well-wishers gathered in Yolo Superior Court to celebrate Reta’s graduation from AIC, including numerous members of the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office and the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office — Reta’s arresting officer among them.
“One of the pleasures of this program is seeing people succeed. The highlight is when we have a graduation,” Judge David Rosenberg, who presides over the specialty court, told Reta. “You’ve had some ups and downs and twists and turns in your life, but you’ve persevered.”
Though the program is designed for completion in 18 months, Reta’s journey took a few months longer, the result of rule violations that at one point got her remanded back into jail custody earlier this year.
Judge David Rosenberg hands a stuffed animal to Crystal Reta’s daughter Lily during the ceremony for Reta’s graduation from the county’s Addiction Intervention Court. Lauren Keene/Enterprise photo
But she fought her way back. After a rocky stay at a treatment facility in Woodland, Reta got a transfer to Promise House, an all-women’s facility in Sacramento she felt would prove a better fit.
“I couldn’t have been happier, because I didn’t want to be a failure,” Reta said. At Promise House, “I literally just flourished. I found a higher power that I didn’t believe in before.”
From there, Reta moved on to the Mather Community Campus, a transitional housing and employment program where she completed the culinary training that led to a steady job.
“Less than a year later, I had my own place, and it just went up from there,” Reta said.
One by one, members of AIC’s treatment team — representing the Yolo County Probation Department, District Attorney and Public Defender’s offices, and Health and Human Services Agency — took turns singing Reta’s praises Tuesday, using words such as “tough,” “strong” and “resilient” to described how she beat the obstacles blocking her path.
“It couldn’t have worked without Crystal putting in the time and effort to make it succeed,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said.
For Raven, Reta’s case held a special significance. Years ago, while working for the state attorney general’s Victim Compensation Board, Raven met Reta’s mother Tammy Cappellano, whose son Michael was killed in a drug-related homicide in 2001.
“I miss him every day,” said Cappellano, herself a recovered addict who feared losing her daughter to drugs as well — until the AIC program got her back on track.
“I am now indebted to this court. It’s special in a way that most people will never get a chance to see,” Cappellano said, calling Reta a “soldier.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of you,” Cappellano told her daughter. “I love you with all my heart. …Just don’t become a better cook than me, OK?”
Then came Reta’s time to speak, which she did holding her younger child, 4-year-old Lily, in her lap.
Reta thanked the AIC team for treating her with tough love, holding her accountable for her poor choices with stiff consequences, which she said “saved my life.” She urged others in the program to take it seriously, and not just as a “fast track out of jail.”
“Don’t do that — there are people that will die waiting for the seat that you have,” Reta said, also reminding that each person receiving treatment through the AIC is worthy of love.
“If you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anybody else, because you don’t have it to give,” Reta said. “You have to be willing to put yourself first. You have to believe you are able to do that.”
She also spoke of her own motivations to succeed — her weariness at struggling in life, not knowing where she would sleep at night, and wondering whether her children were OK.
“I don’t want to feel like that ever again. My kids are my reason,” she said, receiving a standing ovation from the room.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene