Breaking News: Judge Halts Prosecutions of New Orleans Indigent Defendants

By MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writer
Feb 10, 12:59 PM EST

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A New Orleans judge Friday halted prosecutions involving suspects with publicly appointed lawyers in his courtroom and ordered two state legislative leaders to appear before him later this month to talk about funding for the city's overburdened indigent defender office.

It was unclear exactly how many cases would be affected by Judge Arthur Hunter's order, which covers only his section in the 12-section New Orleans criminal court system.

His order came after a full morning of testimony about the sad shape of the public defender office, which was already in trouble before Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, and which, according to testimony, is in much worse shape now.

Office director Tilden Greenbaum said that, before Katrina, the office had 42 lawyers, six investigators and six office workers with a $2.2 million annual budget, 75 percent of which was financed thru traffic court fines.

Now, the office has six lawyers, one investigator and one office staffer, a personnel problem complicated by the fact that people being held on criminal charges before the storm were sent to lockups around the state after Katrina hit, temporarily closing the New Orleans jail.

In many cases, the lawyers they don't know who their clients are because they are scattered over the state.

"Early on, I had a list of where everyone was. But they've been moved so much, I doubt its accurate and we don't have the time or money to go out and look for them," Greenbaum said.

Hunter ordered state Senate President Don Hines, D-Bunkie, and House Speaker Joe Salter, D-Florien, along with Mayor Ray Nagin, to appear in his court on Feb. 23.

"The Legislature has clearly determined that the state and not the parishes should provide for funding," Hunter said the hearing that he called Friday morning.

Before Katrina struck, critics complained of chronic underfunding and burdensome caseloads for the system.

After the storm, the courts, jails and law enforcement had no way to collect fines to fund operations. Public defenders were laid off, leaving many who depend on their services caught in the system.

"I think the system was broke before Katrina," said Rick Tessier, a former public defender who has been appointed a fact-finder by Hunter. "Now it's destroyed."

Hunter is one of two New Orleans criminal judges looking into the system's problems.

Calvin Johnson, chief judge of the court, has asked the Tulane and Loyola law schools to assist him in his separate investigation. Tulane Law School expects to go to court in the next few weeks to try to change the system.

"We will be filing a constitutional challenge to the structure of the public defender system," said Pam Metzger, who directs the criminal law clinic at Tulane Law School. "It is riddled with not just problems, but conflicts of interest."

New Orleans' public defender system was one of the worst in the nation for years, said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans and a former assistant district attorney.

"They have always been underfunded, always been the stepchild," Goyeneche said. "And in Orleans Parish upward of 90 percent of the 12,000 criminal cases each year are represented by a public defender."

"My guess is that we have 4,500 people who have been sitting in jail for up to six months and haven't seen a lawyer," Tessier said. "The issue is what do we do with those people if we don't have public defenders for them and don't have money for lawyers."

Tessier in 1992 challenged the Louisiana indigent defense system over the crushing caseloads. That resulted in a decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court that the system did not provide the effective assistance of counsel the Constitution requires.

Last year the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously decided the state failed to adequately fund the indigent defense program. However, the court did not order any action.

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