The defense of suspected criminals who cannot afford their own attorney costs San Benito County more than $1 million dollars a year – and 8 percent of those cases eat up 35 percent of the budget, according to county figures.
County Counsel Matthew Granger did some research on what kind of cost savings the county might see if it creates an in-house public defenders office versus contracting with outside attorneys for the services. The topic had come up at the San Benito County board retreat on Nov. 13. Granger reported back with some findings at Tuesday’s special meeting.
The county has contracts with two law offices for public defender services, the Law Offices of Gregory LaForge and Harry J. Damkar. The two have contracts that total $521,132 – with provisions for special compensation when they handle cases that involves the death penalty or life in prison. Last year, with special compensation, the attorneys received $650,000 for services.
LaForge said he and Damkar handle about 92 percent of the public defender cases in the county. Granger discovered that the other eight percent of cases use up 35 percent of the budget each year.
“Something is wrong with that number or seems to suggest it clearly,” Granger said. “I see this as an issue there.”
He said while the county has no control over how much crime occurs, the expenditures have stayed fairly stable for the last five years. The district attorney’s office, though, has had a decline in funding since 2010.
The 8 percent of cases that went to uncontracted attorneys included those that involved multiple defendants. Each defendant is entitled to his or her own defense attorney. So if there are more than two defendants in a case, the court assigns an attorney other than LaForge and Damkar. Some of the attorneys to serve as public defenders last year included Elvira Robinson, Arthur Cantu and Arlene Allan.
Granger said the attorneys who are hired to represent defendants without a contract charge up to $150 an hour for their services.
“If counsel is attempting to adhere to conflict rules, the clients are entitled to vigorous representation,” LaForge said. “Attorneys cannot share a copy machine or a phone.”
LaForge said an in-house public defender’s office might quickly create issues if attorneys in the same office are representing different clients on the same case.
Granger said his best estimate of what an in-house public defender’s office would cost the county for a public defender, two associates, an investigator and a paralegal was about $649,000 – or $1,000 less than what LaForge and Damkar took in last year. But that would not address the need for outside counsel when there are multiple defendants.
Granger suggested that county supervisors could make a list of attorneys who meet the criteria to be public defenders who agree to take cases at a certain fee.
Supervisors asked what measures are taken to ensure the defendants cannot afford their own legal counsel or if there is any way to collect fees from defendants after a trial.
Damkar said the majority of the clients he works with do not have any assets, but the judges could come up with a questionnaire for clients to complete to determine if they can pay back some of the costs after the trial. He also said if he learns that a client has the means to pay for services during his work with a client, he notifies the court.
Damkar said he and LaForge represent criminal defense cases as well as dependency cases, which have had a “sizable increase.” He said they used to handle two to three dependency cases a week and now they see 10 to 12. They also handle conservatorships.
“When we are trying to outsource other services, such as fire,” Supervisor Jerry Muenzer said, “it makes me nervous bringing this in house because of the (other post employee benefits) we’ve been discussing.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho said he supported keeping the contract with LaForge and Damkar, but had concerns about the conflict costs for when outside attorneys are hired for multiple defendants.
Supervisors Jaime De La Cruz and Margie Barrios agreed to work with staff, local judges and the public defenders to further research ways to save on the conflict attorneys.
