GREENFIELD — Hancock County officials will consider creating a public defender’s office for the first time, a change to the current system that distributes the responsibility of representing defendants who can’t afford a lawyer among a number of private attorneys on a case-by-case basis.
Jonathan Albright, a Greenfield attorney who serves on the county’s public defender board, presented the proposal to the Hancock County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, May 4, along with Superior Court 1 Judge D.J. Davis.
Under the current system, when a lawyer is needed to represent a defendant who can’t afford one, the judge overseeing the case appoints one of a number of local private attorneys — who volunteer for such work — to take it on.
Albright said the number of attorneys who are willing to take on this responsibility has decreased in recent years, mainly due to older lawyers retiring and younger ones being unwilling to take on the cases. It can be “almost impossible” to find lawyers to take on the more serious felony cases, he said.
Davis said there were once 35 attorneys on the public defense roster; now the county is down to 19, he said, and most won’t take high-level cases.
“Lots of people have dropped off,” he said.
Adding a public defender’s office would involve hiring five new permanent employees, according to a proposal Albright submitted to the commissioners. The proposed salaries are listed as $156,125 for a chief public defender; $117,094 for a deputy public defender; and $70,000 for a staff attorney. Other proposed salaries are $54,182 for an office manager and $33,814 for an legal secretary.
Albright said he arrived at the proposed salaries by looking at salaries in Indiana counties of a comparable size that have public defender offices. He also consulted with the state’s Public Defender Council.
The proposal also sets aside $40,000 for appointed-attorney costs in the case of conflicts of interest or case load overflow.
In total, the proposed budget for the office is $672,258. The budget Albright prepared for 2022 under the current system comes to a total of $658,200, with most of that going toward appointed-attorney costs.
With a permanent public defender, Albright said, the commissioners would likely no longer have to authorize payments of additional money for the service throughout the year, as they have in the past; he noted that last year, the commissioners paid $60,000 from the county’s food and beverage tax fund for additional attorney’s fees partway through the year. A public defender’s office would also be able to handle record-keeping and making reports to the state.
Greenfield lawyer Jeff McClarnon, who frequently handles public defender cases for the county, said he has never had a problem with the way the courts are currently run. McClarnon takes public defense cases in a number of areas, including those involving juveniles; people with mental health issues; and parents who are being investigated by Child Protective Services.
“It’s a service that we’re providing, and we’re an integral part of the system,” he said.
However, McClarnon acknowledged, it is definitely lower-paying work than most attorneys’ private fees. Appointed public defenders are reimbursed at a rate of $100 per hour.
Marie Castetter, an attorney and former judge in Hancock County Superior Court 1, said she appointed a public defender in a large proportion of cases when she was on the bench. She said she supports exploring alternatives to the current system that might work better.
“Sometimes it was difficult to keep a good public defender list,” she said.
Albright said there is a limit to how many cases the county courts can assign to appointed public defenders without losing funding from the Indiana Public Defender Council. However, if a public defender’s office was created, the county could continue to be reimbursed by the the state entity for 40% of most of its costs.
The county does not keep records of what proportion of defendants need public defenders. Hancock County Circuit Court Judge Scott Sirk said that a “significant majority” of the criminal defendants in his court are appointed public defenders.
The county commissioners plan to consider the proposal further at a future meeting. If it is approved, it will also need to go before the Hancock County Council.