Indigent Defense, ABA Opinion Says PDs Must Address Caseloads

Even if you're eligible for a public defender, many are overworked, under resourced, and overloaded. When your freedom is at stake you should always consider retaining an experienced Seattle criminal defense attorney to represent you. An expereienced criminal defense lawyer familiar with all King County and Seattle Courts can give your the sort of diligent and professional representation that you NEED!

This story was published September/October 2006 in the Champion. By Malia Brink

For public defenders, caseloads often seem beyond their control. The budget only allows for a certain number of attorneys, and every defendant who qualifies for assistance is sent to the PD office. Despite this lack of control, the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently determined that public defenders have an ethical obligation to keep their caseloads manageable. Ethical Opinion 06-441 concludes that if the size of the caseload begins to impinge on the public defenderÕs ability to represent her client competently, the public defender must take affirmative steps to reduce her caseload, including, if necessary, seeking relief in court.

The opinion begins by stating that public defenders are subject to the same ethical rules as attorneys working for paying clients. It goes on to note that, under the ethical rules, "[a]ll lawyers, including public defenders, have an ethical obligation to control their workloads so that every matter they undertake will be handled competently and diligently.Ó Lawyers must ensure that they have the time to investigate the facts of each clientÕs case, research relevant legal questions, communicate regularly and effectively with the client, file necessary motions, and otherwise adequately prepare the case.

When a public defenderÕs workload begins to prevent the performance of these tasks with regard to each client, the public defender must immediately address the overload. Because a lawyerÕs first duty is to existing clients, the opinion states that the defenderÕs first step must be to decline any new cases. If the existing workload is also excessive, the defender must seek to withdraw from cases.

Finally, the opinion states that supervising attorneys in public defender offices violate the ethical rules when they fail to address the excessive workloads of the attorneys they supervise.

The opinion is available online at the ABA Web site, http://www.abanet.org/cpr/pubs/ethicopinions.html.

ACLU Report Blasts Prisoner Evacuation During Katrina
A report recently released by the ACLU National Prison Project documents the experiences of the thousands of individuals evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Though a year has gone by, the horrors suffered by these prisoners have not received widespread attention. "Because society views prisoners as second-class citizens, their stories have largely gone unnoticed and therefore untold," said Eric Balaban, a staff attorney for the National Prison Project and author of the report.

Despite the mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans, the decision was made not to evacuate the prisoners. The ACLU report details how, as the ferocity of the storm became evident, many guards abandoned their posts, leaving the prisoners locked-down, without food and water in a facility with no electricity. It goes on to document the prisonersÕ efforts to draw attention to their plight, and their eventual evacuation, days later, through chest-high flood waters.

The report then follows the prisoners as they were transferred to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, where they were placed outdoors in a yard with inadequate food, medical care, and protection from other prisoners, many of whom were armed with makeshift weapons. Eventually, the prisoners were dispersed to facilities throughout Louisiana. At some of these facilities the prisoners finally received appropriate care, food and shelter, but at others, they were subjected to systematic abuse and racially motivated assaults by prison guards.

Shortly after the release of the report, Orleans Parish announced the approval of a unified criminal justice evacuation plan, which calls for the courts, sheriff, district attorneys, and public defenders to relocate to Dabidie Correctional Center in Pineville, La. Further details of the plan including what will happen to evacuated prisoners are not known.1

The National Prison Project has asked the President to direct the Department of Justice to evaluate the new evacuation plan in an effort to determine whether any meaningful improvements have been made over the past year. The ACLU also asked Congress to audit the jail's emergency preparedness plans.
Reed Smith to Receive Honor For Pro Bono Post-Katrina Work The law firm of Reed Smith LLP, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., was instrumental in the effort to identify all of the evacuated prisoners in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The firm dispatched a number of lawyers to Louisiana immediately after the hurricane. These lawyers traveled to prisons in most rural parts of Louisiana under incredibly difficult conditions and interviewed hundreds of prisoners.

They would have stayed in Louisiana longer, but Hurricane Rita forced them to return to their home offices. When they returned, the firm established phone banks to locate and call the family members of these prisoners.

For their work, the law firm of Reed Smith is being honored with the Allegheny County Bar Association 2005 Law Firm Pro Bono Award.

Prosecutor's aide accused in sex case took $72,000 in campaign funds

So much for the integrity of the King County Prosecutor's Office; and Mike McKay is in NO WAY related to Robert S. McKay!!

This story was published December 8, 2006 in the Seattle Times. By Natalie Singer

Larry Corrigan, the former financial director of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office who has been charged with allegedly trying to have sex with a teenager, embezzled $72,000 of campaign funds from Prosecutor Norm Maleng, Maleng's campaign committee has announced.

In a letter sent Thursday to Snohomish County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joan Cavagnaro, who is heading up the sex case, campaign treasurer Mike McKay said Corrigan misappropriated the money from May 2004 until early 2005 and returned about $10,000 of it to the campaign fund in January 2006. Corrigan, who maintained bookkeeping duties for Maleng's campaign, sent $67,503.19 back to the campaign trust on Monday, McKay said.

Corrigan's attorney, John Wolfe, confirmed this afternoon that Corrigan admitted to misappropriating the campaign funds.

The campaign committee has retained a forensic accountant to audit the campaign's financial records. Cavagnaro said she is "standing by ready to assist" with any potential criminal charges against Corrigan, but that the matter must first be investigated by a law enforcement agency. Which agency will depend on where the alleged embezzlement took place, she said.

Maleng and his wife were "shocked and saddened" by the alleged misappropriation, said King County prosecutor spokesman Dan Donohoe.

In addition to his role with Maleng's campaign committee, Corrigan was also active in the election campaigns of numerous local officials including U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, former City Attorney Mark Sidran and judges Mary Yu, Bobbe Bridge and Faith Ireland. He was the King County prosecutor's director of operations and budget for 25 years, until last year.

Seattle police have said Corrigan used two America Online screen names to chat with an undercover officer in the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. Police said Corrigan asked the girl to meet him and perform a particular sex act and bragged that he'd had sex with another teen.

Police also allege that Corrigan sent the fictitious girl pornography and arranged to meet her at a video store on Capitol Hill Wednesday, where police arrested him.