Veterans

Lloyd grew up on a military base in the California High Desert. He started playing baseball on a field named after one young man killed in Vietnam and trained as a varsity swimmer in high school in a pool named after the grandson of his neighbors next door. Three of his high school teachers were veterans and at his first fulltime summer job on base he worked with a number of disabled veterans, a couple whose injuries were visible to the eye, and one whose disability was psychological.

Lloyd’s thoughts about veterans and the judicial system crystalized during his work on the successful defense of a Vietnam veteran who killed a gang member in self-defense. As a result of that case he observed how veterans from the first Gulf War were being treated in the Compton courtrooms in the late 90s. Lloyd wrote a letter to the Assistant Public Defender suggesting that combat veterans be handled differently from other people accused of crimes, just as the Superior Court had begun experimenting with Drug Courts. This led to the formation of a committee within the Public Defender’s Office to study the issue of veterans’ treatment in the court system and their needs, and ultimately to the creation of Veteran’s Court.