Here is my promised update. Attorney Brian Jones was released after five hours. His action was lauded by other Public Defenders in Ohio, as Ohio’s Supreme Court has held that representing a defendant when an attorney is unprepared to avoid a contempt charge constitutes a violation of the ethical rules of Ohio.
Further, the Chief Public Defender in the county where Judge Plough sits has a policy of jury trials only, because:
… his office’s standing policy is to insist on jury trials in Plough’s court because of the belief that Plough will not be fair to defendants if he hears the trials without a jury.
The hearing for Attorney Brian Jones on his contempt charge before Judge Plough is at 3:30 PM this Friday. He is being represented by the Ohio Association of Defense Lawyers.
Oh – one more thing – Judge Plough is an elected judge.
…of substance to say, but want to thank you for keeping us posted on these issues facing public defenders. i find the situation shocking, as i also hope do too. we rely on the system of justice to be well-oiled and “there”. clearly, it isn’t. i’m glad that some of the lawyers who have been absorbing the systemic deficit are starting to push back.
Because the Commonwealth pretends to balance its budget by underfunding relatively powerless, but mandated indepedent contractors like the private court-appointed bar [some call us “bar advocates], there was not enough money to pay for the services rendered by bar advocates in FY 07.
<
p>
Some attorneys went unpaid for work done from April 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007 and at least one was being forced into foreclosure that I know of.
<
p>
The Governor filed a supplemental budget with enough money for the bar advocate line item, 0321-1510 to pay for about 95% of the timely billed, already provided, but not yet paid 4th quarter services.
<
p>
The legislature went on recess and did not pass that money.
<
p>
The Massachusetts Association of Court Appointed Attorneys has been pushing for almost 4 years for “pay as the work is done” billing. The Committee for Public Counsel Services [CPCS] only allows bar advocates to bill on a case once a quarter, on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 [bet you did not know that] or on those occassions when a case closes – which doesn’t happen quickly in appellate bar advocate work, I can tell you.
<
p>
It is anyone’s guess when we bar advocates will get paid for the work we did in that last quarter [April 1, 2007 – June 30, 2007] if we didn’t get paid before CPCS ran out of money.
<
p>
But, anyway, for work done in Fiscal Year 2008 [which began July 1, 2007] CPCS is allowing billing once a week per case, rather than only 4 times a year [CPCS can make or change such rules by a vote of its Board – this doesn’t take legislation at all].
<
p>
So there are problems here, too.
…I used to live in Ohio, and, as far as I know, all state court judges there are elected. They are supposed to be elected on a “non-partison” basis (i.e., no stated party affiliation) but everyone there knows that that is something of a fraud.
Punishing someone for refusing to be party to what are becoming show trials for poor defendants.
<
p>
Speaking of updates, has anything come out in the case of Mr. Scott over in Provincetown?