High on methamphetamines, the man in his 50s exchanged heated words with his neighbors, then drove his car toward the couple. But that’s not where the client’s story began.

Flanked by his family, Ricardo García was sworn in as the 11th LA County Public Defender after the Board of Supervisors spoke about García’s many accomplishments.

Strolling around the 26th Annual Empowerment Congress Summit at USC, passing an urban choir singing in angelic harmony, Robin Moore stopped at the LA County Public Defender booth.

On a cloudless June morning in 2010, Shaka Senghor walked out of prison after serving 19 years — seven of them in solitary confinement. Just shy of his 19th birthday, he had shot and killed a man in a drug deal gone awry.

The LA County Board of Supervisors on March 19 celebrated Public Defense Day to honor the 55th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright.