Friday, July 09, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE: Insufficient staffing may invite lawsuit

ACLU national office threatens county

The ACLU's national office threatened on Thursday to sue Clark County if serious staffing shortages in the juvenile division of the county's public defender's office are not fixed immediately.

"The current situation is intolerable and demands immediate attention," wrote Robin Dahlberg, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We hope the county will do what it must to ensure the constitutional rights of juveniles are properly protected. Otherwise, we will be forced to move forward with litigation."

In response, county officials pointed out Thursday it has added seven attorneys to the juvenile division of the public defender's office over the last year, and it plans to add more.

"I'm kind of disappointed," Assistant County Manger Catherine Cortez Masto said of the ACLU's letter. "I thought they understood that we are committed to the juvenile office and the public defender's office as a whole, and that this can't happen overnight."

Serious flaws in the public defender's office have been well documented in Clark County during the last few years. The office, which defends the poor against criminal charges in Southern Nevada, has been plagued by heavy workloads, inadequate training and lackluster accountability for deputies.

Just last month, flaws in the way the office handled a capital murder case in 1982 prompted a $5 million settlement for former Nevada inmate Roberto Miranda, who spent 14 years on death row. The settlement arose from a lawsuit alleging the public defender's office contributed to his wrongful conviction in a murder case.

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association penned an extensive study of the public defender's office last year. Of particular concern to the association was the quality of representation provided to juveniles. The study found that at the end of 2001, only two attorneys were assigned to the juvenile division for the office, and that each attorney was handling about 950 cases a year. This translated into attorneys spending about two hours on each case.

Over the last year, Clark County officials have vowed to cure the ills. In its most recent budget, the county funded seven new attorneys for the office, and also paid for the hiring of a variety of support staff.

"A year ago today in the juvenile division, we were looking at three attorneys, one legal secretary, two legal office specialists and one part-time paralegal," said Cortez Masto. "We now have 10 attorneys, two investigators, three social workers, one law clerk, two legal secretaries, two legal office assistants, one part-time paralegal, two part-time runners, as well as social worker externs and law school externs."

Masto said she expects the implementation of a county plan to fix the public defender's office to take three to five years.

Newly appointed Public Defender Phil Kohn said he understands the ACLU's frustration given years of neglect of the quality of defense offered to the indigent in Clark County.

"My number one priority is the juvenile division," Kohn said.

The ACLU wrote in its letter to the county, however, that the changes are nowhere near as extensive as they need to be. The ACLU said the county had promised to get at least 16 attorneys in the juvenile office, not the current number of 10, and that with an ever-growing caseload, the county is not even coming close to keeping up.

"Clark County's failure to carry through on its prior promises regarding the juvenile division ... is deeply disappointing and causes us considerable concern," Dahlberg said.

ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Gary Peck said the ACLU understands the county faces fiscal constraints, but he added, "you cannot put a price tag on the constitutional rights of indigent defendants."

"It is no defense for the county to say we have a limited amount of money," Peck said. "The county made a series of decisions about its budgetary priorities, and obviously the juvenile division of the public defender's office wasn't a high priority."