The State Dept. of Children & Families (DCF) and the State Attorney's office appear to be backing away from the controversial Pat Lloyd case—at least in part. Child abuse charges concerning her two younger children have been dropped.
Last March, Lloyd, a divorced mother of three, asked the DCF for help with her unruly 15 year old son. She said he was staying out late, refusing to go to school and was becoming increasingly abusive to her, both verbally and physically. But instead of helping her, DCF officials charged her with child abuse and placed the boy in a foster home.
"I was not necessarily opposed to a foster home on a temporary basis if he was going to be supervised and counseled," Lloyd said, "although I was concerned that the foster parents selected by the DCF are two gay men. While I respect their right to live the lifestyle of their choice, I don't feel that my 15-year-old son should be part of that."
When Lloyd refused to plead guilty, the State Attorney's Office amended the petition to include allegations that she had also abused her two younger children—an 11-year-old son and a daughter, 7.
Then, officials called her to a meeting to propose that they would drop the new charges if she would plead guilty to the original charge of abusing her older son. Lloyd's court-appointed lawyer, Attorney Peary Fowler, urged her to take the deal.
"I refused," Lloyd said. "I am a good mother. I didn't abuse any of my children. I couldn't plead guilty to something I didn't do."
So, last July 25, they put Pat Lloyd on trial. That morning, she replaced Fowler with Attorney Michael Barnes, fresh from his victory in the Nowatney case.
After only two hours of testimony, Judge Mark Jones abruptly stopped the trial and recused himself.
"I don't know why the judge quit," Lloyd said, "but I do know that the state didn't appear to have a case. It must have appeared that way to Judge Jones, too."
Nine days later, the State Attorney dropped the charges against Lloyd that she allegedly abused her two younger children. And no additional hearings have been scheduled concerning the charges that she abused her 15-year-old.
"The DCF started getting involved in my life right after the divorce. My ex-husband began harassing me by calling the Child Abuse Hotline long distance and making false charges against me," Lloyd said. "Each time—maybe 20 times overall—the DCF investigated those charges and determined that they were unfounded.
"But nobody seemed to care that the guy making the calls was thousands of dollars behind in his child support payments," Lloyd said.
"Last year, it became apparent to me that I just couldn't control my 15-year-old son. After he got into trouble at school, he was sent to the Children's Shelter—but he got in trouble there, too," she said.
"I even sent him to live with his father in California. But that didn't work either. His father sent him back to Key West in March. And he continued to get in trouble.
"I needed help. So I went to the Dept. of Children & Families. I thought that's what they do—provide help for children and families. But, incredibly, they told me that there is no help for families with out-of-control children. But they could take over my son's care if I would stipulate that I am an unfit mother.
"I couldn't do that," she said.
"But one morning, my son was particularly abusive to me. He even punched a hole in a door. Concerned for my safety, I called the Sheriff's Office. A deputy arrived and took my son to the DCF offices.
"No police report was written—but two weeks later, the DCF charged me with child abuse and `abandoning' my son," Lloyd said, "and a custody hearing was set.
"Then I was horrified to learn that the DCF and the State Attorney's Office wanted to also make my other two children `dependent.' Now, of course, we know that was just a `strategy' to try to coerce me to plead guilty.
"Those false charges were added on simply to give them something to `drop' if I would plead guilty to the original charges," she said. "And, at the trial, those charges simply fell apart.
"Shouldn't it be illegal for the State Attorney to file charges against a citizen when he knows those charges are false?"