Service officer: ‘We all could very easily be in her position’

SHAKOPEE — One of Marissa LaCourt’s neighbors in Farmington wanted to get rid of his wife’s old car after she purchased a new one.

He is a Vietnam veteran and knew LaCourt helped veterans as a county service officer and an American Legion member of Apple Valley Post 1776. He told her he would wait until she found a veteran who needed it.

LaCourt asked whether the neighbor was sure. He said he would rather donate it than sell it for $500.

“He looked at me and said, ‘It was meant to be.’”

That 2006 Toyota Corolla ended up in the hands of Minnesota National Guard veteran Danielle Rand of Shakopee, a mother of two. LaCourt has a history of finding cars for veterans in need of transportation.

“This is my sixth car,” she said. “A car is the great equalizer. Now she and her children have safe transportation.”

She said veterans like Dani Rand emphasize why Department Commander Carl Moon’s fundraising project is important. He hopes to raise $60,000 for the Veterans Defense Project, a nonprofit working to expand veterans courts in Minnesota.

“There is a bit of stigma around justice-involved veterans,” LaCourt said, “and some people look down on them, but they are still people. We all could very easily be in her position.”

The way to do it without burdening the veteran with tax implications, she said, is to have the donor give it to a nonprofit organization, such as an American Legion or VFW post, and that organization then donates it to the veteran.

This time, she went through Disabled American Veterans Chapter 40 out of Apple Valley. Chapter Commander Carla Tappainer was on hand for the presentation Nov. 15.

Tappainer said Chapter 40 had the car detailed, covered the cost of registration and bought floormats and an ice scraper. It paid to have Dick’s Valley Service in Apple Valley inspect the car, too.

“This is going to make a lot of difference for me,” Rand said.

She is a mother to son Landon, 6, and daughter London, 2.

Rand graduated from Shakopee High School in 2008. By her sophomore year, she knew military was her career path. She entered the Delayed Entry Program, and she went through basic training after her junior year.

Advanced Individual Training was at Fort Jackson, S.C., where she trained to be a 42A, a human resource specialist in the Minnesota National Guard.

Rand drilled in Roseville at the 147th Human Resources Company. In April 2011, her father had a traumatic brain injury. She found him on his back, so she turned him on his side and called 911. Meanwhile, her unit was preparing to deploy in November and asked whether she still planned to go. She remained dedicated to deploying.

Rand deployed with the 147th to Ali Al Aalem Air Base, Kuwait. By this time, she had reached the rank of E-4 specialist. There, she provided overhead slides for generals and staff. She said she went six months without a day off. She found the need to run, and would participate in organized runs. She got bronze in one race.

She finally got Wednesdays off.

She said she had three lieutenants supervising her during her military career. The second one, a female, was particularly hard on her for inverting numbers, to the point of laughing and berating her in front of others.

She was happy to have a new LT, this one male and more professional, Rand said.

Soldiers, she said, lived in trailers while in Kuwait and were provided alcohol somehow. A male MP, she said, sexually assaulted her one night, leaving bruises up and down her arms. She didn’t say anything until she returned to the United States out of fear of getting in trouble for drinking in a dry country.

Rand came home Nov. 11, 2012, and cried tears of joy upon returning. She moved into an apartment with a fellow female soldier, but after two months, the roommate wanted out, leaving Rand to find a new roommate.

Meanwhile, while she had been out of country, her father suffered three medical episodes and became hooked on opioids.

With the new roomie, she began to drink more and went through another sexual assault.

In June 2014, she met the man who became the father of her children while she was working security at Mystic Lake Casino. After all, she’d had a crush on him in high school.

Four months later, Rand lost her apartment and her car. She and her boyfriend were locked up in the Scott County Jail for possession of controlled substances.

Her father bailed her out. She was honorably discharged from the military in December 2015.

She and her boyfriend remained together.

“I think part of me felt like I could help him,” Rand said.

By June 2017, she found herself in front of drug treatment court. She had been in and out of 20 rehab centers. While at the St. Cloud VA in July 2017, she found out she was pregnant.

She found her father dead in his apartment on Aug. 25, 2017. Her son was born March 21, 2018. The VA rated her as service-connected in 2019. (She is now 80 percent.)

Rand said the Shakopee police performed a raid (likely a multi-agency drug task force) in February 2021, and her son was taken from her and brought to her sister in St. Paul for care. Rand was sent to treatment.

Her boyfriend, meanwhile, continued to use drugs and had access to her money. Her parole officer gave her one more chance to stay off drugs, but she hung out with the wrong crowd and, admittedly, did drugs. She was arrested Sept. 12, 2021, and ended up before a judge in Scott County’s veterans treatment court. A judge sent her to a treatment center in Waconia, and she followed the court’s restorative justice steps.

Success!

She gave birth to her daughter in February 2022.

She got custody of her children in October 2022.

Her boyfriend was charged with murder in November 2022. Eventually, he was sent to state prison in Lino Lakes.

Rand has been drug-free since the day after her arrest, meaning she recently passed the three-year mark. She graduated veterans court in May and hopes to become a mentor to other veterans.

“She’s one of my favorite success stories because she is one that I counted out,” LaCourt said.

LaCourt is a Goodhue County service officer who used to be a service officer for Scott County. She lives in Farmington. She plans to help Rand renew her American Legion membership at Shakopee Post 2.

“Serving your community is a good thing for veterans,” LaCourt said. “It’s therapeutic for us when we serve others.”