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Vindicated: Man among 15 drug court grads with new life chances
VINDICATOR EXCLUSIVE
YOUNGSTOWN
Last year when Dwayne Lloyd, 54, was sitting in the Mahoning County jail, he saw something he’d never seen before: his face pictured in The Vindicator.
“The words were big: ‘Indicted,’” he recalled.
Seeing his name and face in the newspaper after an April 2016 arrest on drug and gun-related charges stung.
“My pride was hurt. I was embarrassed,” he said.
That’s why, more than a year later, he wanted The Vindicator there when the charges from that incident were dismissed after his successful completion of the Mahoning County Felony Drug Court program.
Lloyd was one of 15 people to graduate Wednesday from drug court, which is led by Judge John M. Durkin of common pleas court. Of the 15 graduates, 11 ended the program with high honors, meaning they did not fail any drug tests or receive any sanctions over the course of the program.
Lloyd, who was among those to earn high honors, said he feels confident about leading a sober life.
He said he had abused substances on and off since a young age. He moved to Youngstown in 2010 to take care of his parents.
Last April, he was pulled over by Youngstown police, who reported finding crack cocaine and a semiautomatic pistol in the car.
The incident led Lloyd to drug court, which accepts defendants who meet certain criteria and who agree to plead guilty to the felony charges they are facing.
Upon successful completion of the program – which requires participants to undergo substance-abuse treatment, take regular drug tests, get a job, and other steps – participants’ charges are dismissed.
Lloyd, who has five children and five grandchildren, now is looking to the future. Although most of his family lives in Philadelphia, he plans to remain in Youngstown to take care of his parents’ house and to train as a machinist. Both of his parents are dead.
“I want them to look down on me and see that I’m doing well and taking care of the house,” he said. “I’m trying to make them proud.”
At the ceremony, the graduates, along with dozens of supporters who packed the courtroom, heard from Maurice Clarett. Clarett, a Youngstown native, helped lead the Ohio State Buckeyes football team to a national championship in 2002, but his football career ended early after he was dismissed from OSU and sentenced to prison in an aggravated-robbery case.
Clarett, now a motivational speaker, recalled a dark period in his life when he was staying at his mother’s Ravenwood Avenue house and abusing alcohol and prescription drugs. He credited his time in prison with helping him to turn his life around.
There, he got mental-health treatment, educated himself, and had time to think about questions such as, “How did you go from the top of the world to the bottom of the barrel?” he said.
Now, he said, he lives a disciplined lifestyle in which he tries to avoid temptation at all costs and dedicates most of his free time to activities such as public speaking and The Red Zone, a social-service organization he co-founded.
He offered this advice to graduates: “Never give up.”
Judge Durkin started the felony drug court in 1997. Over the last 20 years, the program has served an estimated 1,300 people. The program has an approximately 52 percent graduation rate and approximately 91 percent of graduates do not commit another felony, said Amy Klumpp, drug court programming coordinator.
As the ceremony concluded, Judge Durkin ended with this hopeful reminder to the graduates: “This is not the end. This is just the beginning.”