Jodi Galvin

Jodi Galvin retired in 2010, after spending more than 20 years as a prosecutor with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. For more than a decade prior to that, she had been an investigator in the criminal and mental health sections of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office. When thinking about what to do next, Galvin realized she could use her experience to help veterans, a population that mattered a great deal to her. Her father, brother, sister-in-law, niece and niece’s husband all...

California law offers military and mental health diversion programs to help veterans accused of crimes access rehabilitation instead of prosecution, with recent expansions allowing felony-level military diversion starting Jan. 1, 2025. The California Legislature has recognized that persons who served in the military sometimes commit crimes due to mental and physical conditions they suffered as a result of their service. Among the statutes enacted to benefit veterans is Penal Code § 1001.80,...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was hit with a civil rights lawsuit late Tuesday by homeless veterans in Los Angeles and their advocates. The plaintiffs are accusing the agency of misusing a huge VA campus in West LA and breaking a promise to build 1,200 affordable apartments there. Instead, the complaint says, the VA routinely pushes the region’s neediest veterans into temporary shelters, psychiatric facilities, and jails — depriving them of housing and health care benefits. The 14...