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No Lawyer Ready, So Top N.O. Juvenile Public Defender Jailed
Jan. 10, 2007
The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The volunteer lawyer in charge of New Orleans' juvenile public defenders spent three hours in jail because he had nobody ready to defend a case before the chief judge in juvenile court.
Steve Singer was released Tuesday when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal stayed the contempt order issued by Chief Juvenile Court Judge David Bell.
He said he went straight to Bell's court to tell him that the office will soon get state money to increase the number of lawyers who will represent young criminal defendants.
"I think (Bell) is frustrated for the right reasons," Singer said. "I think, like a lot of us, for him the pace of recovery is not fast enough. I agree with him."
Only one attorney was available for cases Tuesday in the four courts that handle juvenile criminal cases, because the other public defender assigned to juvenile court is on her honeymoon. With all four juvenile judges holding court, the working attorney was in a bind, said Derwyn Bunton, a member of the board that governs the Orleans Parish indigent defense program.
The judge said the court dockets held a total of five trials and 19 matters — far too much for a single attorney.
He said he had warned the public defenders office that if an attorney was not ready for court, he would find someone in contempt. As the office's trial chief, Singer had told Bell that if anyone was held in contempt, it should be him.
Singer, part of a group of attorneys working to reshape the indigent defense office, said he spent about three hours at Orleans Parish Prison, as well as another hour and a half at the lockup at juvenile court.
Several judges at the Criminal District Court, which deals with adult crimes, have complained that some of the changes made by the indigent defenders office — such as requiring all attorneys to work full-time — have yet to improve representation for poor people.
But Bell said he is solidly behind the changes being made at the public defender office.
"At the end of the day, we will have a public defenders office that is better trained, staffed and manned, in juvenile court at least, than they ever have been in the past," he said. On Tuesday, he felt that the office's leadership needed to be "nudged on course," he said.
Pamela Metzger, another member of the board that oversees the public defenders office, said holding lawyers in contempt is not a positive way to deal with a criminal justice system that is still being repaired. She noted that criminal court judges recently threatened to hold board members in contempt if they did not comply with a judicial order.
"It is simply not acceptable for judges to resolve their concerns about the public defender by threatening to hold board members in contempt or arresting staff," Metzger said.
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
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