Defenseless

The weary look on Kevin Donnelly face said it all.
It didn’t take long for the state budget cuts to hit the 15th Judicial District Court’s Public Defenders Program, of which the Acadia Parish Public Defenders Office is a part.
Facing the impending cuts, the 15th Judicial Court was forced to let 26 of their contract attorney’s go. Each remaining attorney’s case load drastically increased, resulting in much longer hours and a case load increase.
And having to prioritize the order in which their cases are tried has obviously applied some pressure on the Acadia Section Chief and his staff, as it has for the other two public defender’s offices in the three-parish (Acadia, Lafayette, Vermilion) area which comprises District 15.
“Basically, everything is still uncertain,” said Donnelly. “We’re trying to get the funds. The first group we had to get rid of was our contract attorneys, who were some of our best lawyers. We had to work through the weekend last week.”
According to Donnelly, the first defendants that will be taken to trial will be those who are still incarcerated who’s only hope of getting out lie with the representation from the public defender’s office.
“These clients, who are currently in jail, will have to be put onto a wait list,” he said. “In fact about 90 percent of all the criminal cases are going to have to be pushed back.”
G. Paul Marx, who leads the 15th Judicial District’s Public Defender Office, said that the situation “is very upsetting.”
“We’re only going to be able to handle about 20 percent of our normal case load,” he said. “We’ve received a grant from Lafayette City Court to help us for the time being.”
In total, Marx said that they’re are 16 defenders currently working for his office. However, a number are on a contract basis. In the Acadia Parish Office there are only two left after the cuts.
“I’m very angry about this,” he said.
Marx added that he had spoken with District Attorney Keith Stutes and they would work together to ensure that the most pressing cases will be given priority.
Another negative aspect of the situation is that the more time that passes between the time a crime is committed until the trial, the tougher it gets for both the defense and the prosecution to present their cases. Memories fade. Stories can change. And often, by the time the trial rolls around the testimony and the original police report may differ drastically.
Even more frightening are the cases involving suspects that have bonded out and are awaiting trial for violent crimes.
“These people are going to be out much longer than they were originally scheduled to be,” said Donnelly. “They are walking the streets right now.”
As for anybody who has been charged with a misdemeanor who was hoping to get representation from the public defender’s office, Donnelly said they simply can’t represent them at this time.”
“We simply had to prioritize our workload,” he said.
The defender’s office had already let several employees go in January, probably in anticipation of what was to come.
However, that was before Gov. John Bel Edwards gave his speech last Thursday.
“That’s when we knew it was going to be severe,” said Donnelly.
Donnelly’s belief, however, that there was no way the 15th Judicial District Court would be brought to a slow crawl seemed to give him a bit of hope that the current situation may be only for a short term basis. Until then, “The office now has an additional 60 cases on their hands and fewer lawyers to work them.”