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Public defender’s program nears its end
Published September 11, 2009
County commissioners court agreed this week to begin negotiating an agreement to smooth the end of the county's contract for a regional public defenders office here.
The court during a special meeting Tuesday discussed developing a phase-out agreement with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid to transition from the public defenders office back to a court-appointed attorney system later this year.
Assistant County Attorney David Martinez told the court, “(On) Sept. 30, about three weeks away, the current contract, the current agreement, that we have with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for the public defenders office is set to expire. In order to insure that everybody involved is as professionally responsible as we need to be, because we're dealing with the constitutional rights of the indigent, what we have started doing is talking to the judges, talking to the public defenders office, about a phase-out plan.”
“To simply watch the guillotine come down on Sept. 30, I think, is irresponsible on all our parts. What I anticipate and what I'm hopeful for, is that maybe we can arrive at an agreement of 60 to 90 days to allow the public defenders office to . . . prepare the cases that they are not going to be able to proceed on,” Martinez said.
He told the court he believes there are “at least 50 or 60 cases” that the public defenders office has announced for trial on in state district courts here.
“It's obviously impossible to try 50 or 60 cases before Sept. 30, and it'll be impossible to do it within 90 days as well, but those cases probably need to be prepared to be transitioned over to newly-appointed court-appointed lawyers,” Martinez told commissioners court. “In addition, it will allow parties to resolve those cases that can be resolved, whether they are in misdemeanor court or in district court.”
“. . . All that we're doing at this point is just asking the court for authorization to enter into some negotiations with the public defenders office to reach an amicable and workable agreement,” Martinez said.
Martinez's brief presentation was followed immediately by a motion to authorize the start of negotiations for the phase-out agreement by County Commissioner Precinct 3 Beau Nettleton, seconded by County Commissioner Precinct 2 Roy Musquiz.
Before the court voted on Nettleton's motion, County Commissioner Precinct 1 Ramiro Ramon asked to make a comment.
“The defense of the indigent is a state-mandated program. The counties have to provide legal defense for the indigent, and the way it was before we got the contract and the grant and accepted Texas RioGrande Legal Aid as our representatives, the judges used to appoint our local attorneys to represent the indigent, and that's what they're going to do now,” Ramon said.
“The program was a good program for us. I have been going to Austin and meeting with the Task Force on Indigent Defense, and when a county gets granted for the amount of money that we got granted, which was over a million dollars, they do not consider you for another grant, period. But they have agreed to look at our program, because it was a successful program, but they will not look at it again until 2010, the summer of 2010. And then they say, well, there are possibilities that maybe we can use you as another model to expand the program and go in with a bigger program and add more counties to it. So, again, there is hope for the future,” Ramon said.
He added, “We are having three murder trials here soon, which is going to hit our pockets pretty heavily. This is a circumstance that is not normal for us, and (the state) has agreed to help us, up to $100,000 per trial, but it will be on a reimbursement (basis), which would give us $300,000 to help us offset the costs of those trials.”
County Commissioner Precinct 4 Jesse “Cheo” Ortiz asked County Auditor Frank Lowe how the county was “set up for this blow” in the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 county budget.
Lowe confirmed that $700,000 has been set aside for court-appointed attorneys in the 2009-2010 county budget.
The court voted unanimously to authorize the county attorney's office to begin negotiating the phase-out agreement with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.
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