Budget cutbacks thorn for accused
At least 200 defendants locally could be left without attorneys if state budget cuts for public defenders are enacted. As a result of the cuts, the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy will no longer pay for “conflict counsel,” said Renae Tuck, lead public defender for the Bowling Green DPA office. Conflict counsel attorneys are hired when there are multiple defendants in a case, but the cuts will mean the DPA will now only represent one of those accused.Three percent of cases involving the Bowling Green DPA office are handled by conflict counsel - at least 200 cases per year, Tuck said.“This is a weekly thing. We have conflict cases every Monday in Warren Circuit Court,” Tuck said.The DPA represents people who a judge deems too poor to afford their own attorney. To qualify for a public defender, a defendant has to submit a financial affidavit listing income and any property or vehicles they own to a judge.This is a dire situation, said Robert Ewald, chairman of the DPA commission.Throughout the state, more than 3,000 people who couldn’t afford an attorney were represented by conflict counsel paid for by the DPA in 2007, he said.The budget situation is going to cause a crisis throughout the state, Ewald said.Judges in conflict cases will be forced to either appoint an attorney to represent the defendants and send the bill to the Kentucky State Treasurer’s Office, or not provide court-appointed counsel, he said.“Neither of those are good options,” Ewald said.Gov. Steve Beshear has until next week to approve the proposed budget or veto all or parts of the budget.“These types of announcements concern me greatly. I proposed two different sources of revenue which would have allowed us to avoid such reductions, but the General Assembly chose not to pass them,” Beshear said in a statement. “This is a painful budget for all who depend on the state for services.”Beshear proposed increasing the state’s cigarette tax by 70 cents per pack. He also pushed to allow casino gambling in the state, which Beshear said would eventually generate $500 million a year.Budget cuts will also result in the elimination of 54 positions within the DPA, including 30 trial attorneys, Ewald said.“The hope is that all those positions will be eliminated through attrition, but we can’t say that for sure,” he said.Over the last several months, the DPA has not replaced people who - anticipating the budget problems - left their positions within the DPA, Ewald said. But there is no guarantee that positions will not have to be cut throughout Kentucky.There will be a meeting in a few weeks after Beshear has signed or vetoed the budget, Tuck said.“We’re now just in a wait and see period,” Tuck said.Public defenders are already handling more cases than they should - more than 400 per attorney per year statewide, Ewald said.“We can’t ask them to handle more than 500 cases,” he said.Public defenders should be handling at most between 300 and 350 cases per year, Ewald said.In the 2007 fiscal year, the DPA represented more than 148,000 defendants with 350 attorneys, according to DPA statistics.“Turning away cases is a serious step and unfortunately, an extreme measure, but it is necessary if we (DPA commission members) are to properly perform our statutory fiduciary duty,” Ewald said.Kentucky has a constitutional mandate to fund indigent defense at an adequate level, he said. But the state has failed to provide adequate funding in this budget.— Associated Press reports contributed to this article.
Bowling Green Daily News  –  Apr 10, 2008 5:53 PM [GMT]
found in Local: Kentucky: Bowling Green