Officials: Local public defenders office likely

This is the first part of a series looking at the effects of the diminishing number of local attorneys.

CELINA - Mercer County commissioners may have to establish a public defenders office due a felony caseload that has ballooned over the last decade and fewer local attorneys available to represent defendants who can't afford legal counsel.

Some say it has become apparent that it's time to make the switch from the county's decades-old assigned counsel system to a county-run public defender office that would operate much like the prosecutor's office.

"Number of cases and number of lawyers is very incongruous. We've got way too many criminal cases and way too few criminal defense attorneys," said Celina-based attorney Louis Schiavone, who knows the county judicial system well after practicing law in the county for nearly 35 years.

The county has little recourse other than to set up such a system, said Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Ingraham.

"We relied on our assigned counsel system for those attorneys to in effect volunteer to be part of the (system) and accept appointment from the court to fill that need, and we've kind of run out of attorneys that are willing and able to do that kind of work," Ingraham said. "We are in the process of pursuing the establishment of a five-member commission to set up a public defenders office and have briefly talked with county commissioners."

Before a public defender system can get off the ground, commissioners must first vote to create the commission made up of five members. Three of the members would be appointed by county commissioners and two by the county common pleas court judge, Schiavone said.

"Those five individuals would then hire a public defender who would then be in charge of running the office and staffing it, furnishing it and hiring assistants," Schiavone said.

Commissioners said they are exploring the option.

"I'd say it's fairly likely to happen," said county commissioner Rick Muhlenkamp. "It's just the challenge we face with the declining attorney numbers."

"There's a working group that's been looking at it," added county commissioner Greg Homan. "There's some steps that have to be taken, and we've got to do some further analysis, but I think it's a proposal that we're seriously looking at."

For decades, Mercer County has used an assigned counsel system, which allows judges to appoint on a rotating basis attorneys who use their own staff and equipment to defend indigent defendants. Commissioners in 2019 bumped up both in-court and out-of-court compensation rates to $75 per hour for cases, the first increase in 11 years. The state is supposed to reimburse the county for most of the costs, according to Ingraham.

The system, Ingraham said, has worked well. He appoints counsel taking into account a defendant's past record, if applicable, disposition and other factors.

"They need to be able to trust their attorney and the attorney needs to be committed and have the availability to help this person through the system," he said.

Schiavone said Ingraham knows attorneys in the county bar association and the needs unique to each defendant.

"An assigned counsel system allows a judge to mesh the needs of a client with the abilities of an attorney very well," Schiavone said.

Most defendants in the court were born and raised in Mercer County and will return here to live out the rest of their lives, Schiavone said. This understanding is shared among judge, prosecutor and defense attorney, though they obviously each have a clearly defined role.

"These are our neighbors and our citizens, and there's a mutual responsibility that all three of us have with each and every case," he said.

Ingraham maintained that the system would continue to work into the future if there were enough participating attorneys.

"I have no qualms about the quality and availability that the attorneys have made that practice in front of this court that I've appointed to represent indigent defendants," he said. "They go beyond what's required of them."

However, there's maybe six or seven local attorneys who now accept assignments for felony-level cases, Schiavone said.

"Caseloads and the number of attorneys around here have changed dramatically," he said. "Since I got here in '87 I know there's at least 15 people that are not practicing anymore."

In his early years there were maybe 30 to 50 felony indictments each year. The county didn't have a standalone, full-time prosecutor's office until the '90s, Schiavone said.

"(Felony cases) are pressing 200 or 300 now. There's days where they're doing 40 cases a day in front of Jeff Ingraham," Schiavone said. "And the gravity of what we're dealing with and the volume is exponentially larger."

With a lack of local attorneys, Ingraham said he's had to seek out legal representatives from adjacent counties.

A public defender system would alleviate some of these issues.

"That's probably the direction the whole state is going because there's fewer and fewer counties of our size that have enough lawyers who are interested in representing indigent criminal defendants to be able to provide that on an assigned counsel basis." Ingraham said.

Ingraham, who has sat on the bench since 1990, said he would like to see a public defenders office up and running sometime next year, before the next judge is sworn in. Term-limited by age, Ingraham said his last day in office is Dec. 31, 2022.

"I don't really think that there's going be a whole lot of difference whether it's the assigned counsel system or a public defenders office in terms of bottom-line dollars-and-cents to the county," he said, noting the state would reimburse the county for indigent expenses. "The primary purpose is to make sure we have quality defense for the indigent defendants."

The difference would be having an office similar to that of the prosecutor's office in a county-owned or -leased building, which would require office equipment, furniture, etc. Personnel also would be considered county employees.

Such an office likely would employ a public defender, two or three office employees, part-time or full-time assistant prosecutors and perhaps an in-house investigator, Ingraham said. Though the state would reimburse the county expenses, county commissioners would have to appropriate funds for the office in its annual budget.

The public defender, Schiavone said, "may or may not be somebody from the local bar (association) but certainly the members of the local bar who have been doing assigned counsel work would be very good candidates to be part-time assistant public defenders and at the same time be able to maintain their (private) practice."  

Whatever form it takes, providing counsel for indigent defendants is essential, Ingraham said.

"If our culture provides for prosecution of people that commit crimes, and we want to have a safe community, we also have to have a fair justice system that appoints and provides counsel for those who can't afford to pay for it themselves, who are at the mercy of the state when they get charged," he said.