Public Defenders Weak Link in St. Louis Crime Crackdown

    Feb. 11, 2007
    Belleville News-Democrat
    By The Associated Press


    ST. LOUIS - City leaders are determined to crack down on crime after St. Louis was dubbed the most dangerous U.S. city last year. But the city's overworked public defenders' office might be a weak link in their plan.

    A new effort to bring law and order to the city's highest crime neighborhoods will mean a surge of new arrests - and new defendants flooding the municipal court system.

    While the city has put money toward hiring new police officers and prosecuting attorneys, no provision has been made to bolster the public defender system, which represents half or more of the accused, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    The public defender system is already in "crisis mode," according to a report released last month by the Senate Interim Committee on the Missouri State Public Defender System.

    The report said the state-funded office has not established a new position in six years, while the caseload for its 350 attorneys has grown by 12,000 in that time. In a typical recent year, the turnover is one lawyer in five.

    "The probability that public defenders are failing to provide effective assistance of counsel and are violating their ethical obligations to their clients increases every day," the report said.

    The situation is only intensifying as the city's anti-crime drive is causing the court docket to swell. A police Crime Suppression Team went out Jan. 1 to target especially dangerous offenders.

    "When they do these new crime initiatives, the whole system is not involved in the process, and it's difficult to respond to it," said Eric Affholter, the district public defender for St. Louis.

    Affholter said his office opened 25 percent more cases in January than in other recent months.

    "Even without this new anti-crime team, there are so many problems in our system," Affholter said. "They are adding to the crisis."

    He said that last year, each of his lawyers managed about 300 cases. Statewide, public defenders handle about 80 percent of the criminal cases; in St. Louis, it's about 50 percent, he said.

    Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza and Presiding Judge Thomas Grady said the clerks and judges were prepared for the increased volume. But Grady said he was concerned that the system didn't have enough trial attorneys, especially public defenders.

    More money could be in the pipeline for public defenders.

    Gov. Matt Blunt recommended a $2 million increase for the public defender budget for 2008, but officials said that would only meet cost-of-living raises and added supplies costs.

    Blunt promised to revise his recommendation after reading the Senate committee report, said spokeswoman Jessica Robinson.

    St. Louis leaders have so far focused on getting new funding for police officers and prosecutors. The city passed a new business license fee in August that will provide an estimated $2.4 million increase to hire 40 new officers.

    The circuit attorney's office is using some of its $480,000 share of the revenue increase to start a Career Criminal Unit of experienced lawyers.

    Mayor Francis Slay lobbied law makers in Jefferson City this month to get more money for probation and parole officers. Slay didn't lobby on behalf of public defenders, said his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford.

    That might change, Rainford said.

    "If they are going to be the choking point in the system, we'll support them," Rainford said. "But the state is going to have to get involved."



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