Prosecutor had alleged county would pursue Rodrigues funds
The board chairman and another supervisor said this week that
it’s up to the courts to decide who is eligible for public defender
services and that they have no intention of leading the effort to
pursue the $148,000 in fees for the Michael Rodrigues rape
trial.
The longtime sheriff’s deputy recently was sentenced for raping
three women. He had requested and obtained a public defender
shortly following his grand jury indictment in late 2007 and used
the legal, investigative and forensic services through the
sentencing Nov. 20.
Prosecutor had alleged county would pursue Rodrigues funds
The board chairman and another supervisor said this week that it’s up to the courts to decide who is eligible for public defender services and that they have no intention of leading the effort to pursue the $148,000 in fees for the Michael Rodrigues rape trial.
The longtime sheriff’s deputy recently was sentenced for raping three women. He had requested and obtained a public defender shortly following his grand jury indictment in late 2007 and used the legal, investigative and forensic services through the sentencing Nov. 20.
With the contracted public defender Gregory LaForge calling for a conflict of interest at the outset, the courts assigned Rodrigues an alternative in Art Cantu. At the sentence hearing, though, prosecutor Patrick Palacios said the county would pursue the fees because he alleged Rodrigues had the ability to fund his defense.
Board Chairman Anthony Botelho and Supervisor Reb Monaco concurred with each other that the county has no authority to pursue the costs. Supervisors also noted how the issue had not come up in discussions.
“That’s not the role of the supervisors,” Monaco said. “That’s up to the courts to make those decisions.”
Monaco acknowledged how supervisors do set the public defender budget, including costs for conflict attorneys, and he called the set-up “one of the areas that seem kind of foolish when you look at them.”
Botelho said he doesn’t expect the issue to come up while he still is chairman through this year.
“I honestly never have heard of any case that we have done that,” he said. “And so I’m not even sure procedurally if we have that ability to evaluate individual clients in the public defender’s office.”
Court Administrative Officer Gil Solorio, meanwhile, could not be reached immediately before press time.
