WA: Grant County gets it in gear

From the Wenatchee World:

Public defense pilot project posts dramatic results in Grant County

Two years ago, 93 juveniles arrested for crimes in Grant County pleaded guilty at their first court appearance before an attorney was even assigned to them. Last year, only one child did.

Grant County was one of three places in the state chosen for a pilot project last year aimed at providing better defense for indigent and juvenile people who are charged in Washington. The state provided $100,000 to hire an attorney to be present at every juvenile's first court appearance in Grant County.

As a result, not only did those children not plead guilty without knowing all their options, but many of them were able to participate in treatment and counseling programs and received deferred sentences rather than detention for their crimes...

WA: Grant County - style p.d. work will cost you more than your bar license

Big news from the Spokesman-Review:

$3 million verdict for wrongly accused man

A federal jury in Spokane has awarded more than $3 million to Felipe G. Vargas who spent more than seven months in the Grant County jail, falsely accused of child molestation. The judgment was awarded against the former Grant County public defender, Thomas F. Earl, who provided “ineffective assistance of counsel” to Vargas...

Verdict rebuffs flat-fee defender contracts

A $3 million jury verdict in Spokane is sending a message to Washington counties, ending their practice of flat-fee contracts for public defenders, legal experts said Friday... Three days after (Felipe Vargas') arrest in November 2003, the alleged victim recanted. Police and prosecutors knew that but took no steps to free Vargas from jail. His public defender apparently was too busy with 500 other cases and didn’t adequately represent Vargas.

Grant County, also named defendant in Vargas’ 2006 civil rights suit, settled last month by paying him $250,000, based on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Moses Lake attorneys Garth Dano and George Ahrend filed the civil rights suit... “The importance of this case is it said, ‘Stop lying to the judges and each other, and don’t put your financial interests ahead of your clients,’” Dano said Friday.

John Strait, a legal ethic professor at Seattle University, testified as an expert. Flat-fee contracts, he said, “are all illegal and unethical for any attorney to enter into... “If there really are 17 counties left, and I doubt it, the lawyers who signed those contracts are subject to immediate discipline,” Strait said. “If you can identify any for me, I will file those bar complaints...”

WA: going in-house in Grant County

Great news from the channeled scablands, from the Columbia Basin Herald:

Grant County creates public defender's department - Defense attorneys to be employees

Grant County is changing public defense into a county department. Grant County commissioners hired Rafael Gonzales to lead the Grant County Department of Public Defense...

Gonzales’ goal for the public defender’s system is to provide the best service for the client and get the best result possible. He said the county has pursued this goal. “I think that this office is the next step,” Gonzales said... “We are set to open the doors on March 1,” he said.

WA: medieval ordeal in Ephrata

Professor Turley pays a visit to my favorite old-timey Washington county:

Grant County in Washington has settled an exceptionally disturbing case involving false allegations of child abuse, allegedly ineffective representation by a public defender (later disbarred), and the holding of an innocent man for seven months after allegations were disproved. The $250,000 with Felipe Vargas seems quite modest given the abuse that he encountered in Grant County, which seems to maintain a criminal justice system on a model from the Thirteenth Century...

Profe hasn't kept up with all the changes; Grant County's in at least the Nineteenth Century by now.

WA: Grant County - the saga continues

The Ephrata / Soap Lake / Moses Lake p.d. crisis has gone away, but the lawsuit that fixed it hasn't. From the Columbia Basin Herald:

ACLU mulls appeal in Grant County public defender settlement - Judge ruled in Grant County's favor

A Seattle attorney representing the ACLU said it hasn't been decided if a recent ruling made in Grant County's favor will be appealed... Kittitas County Superior Court Judge Michael E. Cooper ruled Grant County will not have to pay the ACLU $100,000 concerning the county's representation of poor clients in 2006... Seattle attorney Don Scaramastra said he believes the county failed to keep promises during its attorney shortage in Dec. 2006...

In 2006, the county had difficulty luring attorneys to rural Grant County because attorneys believed the ACLU would be looking over their shoulders, (Grant County Commissioner Richard) Stevens said. But for Grant County's 2006 performance, Judge Cooper decided the county made significant enough growth in the settlement agreement it has with the ACLU, Stevens said. "The judge ruled that it wasn't perfect, but very good," Stevens said. "The judge said the citizens of Grant County are being served well by the indigent defense plan..."

WA: why Grant County public defenders treat youthful offenders as clients

Michael E. Haas, a Grant County public defense attorney, writes in response to this bit of nonsense from the Columbia Basin Herald:

Guest Editorial: Defender responds to comments on juvenile crime

"The best thing we can do is put the fear of God (in kids)," said Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell. I disagree John. The best thing we can do is love our children, nurture them, teach them right from wrong, teach them to be kind, teach them boundaries, teach them to be respectful of others and themselves. That's what I want for my children and it's what I want for my neighbors' children. Should I want anything less for a child that commits a crime?

Big A & C respect goes out to Ephrata / Soap Lake / Moses Lake juvenile public defenders Sean Devlin and Brandon Redal.

WA: juvenile justice, Grant County style - treating clients like clients

Long after settling the ACLU lawsuit, Grant County, Washington continues to struggle under the yoke of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. The elected prosecutor's latest objections, from the Columbia Basin Herald:

Grant County cities ask for more prosecutors

Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell said the juvenile system in Grant County is flawed. Juveniles go to court and are viewed as clients by public defenders...

More public defenders results in less prosecution due to the amount of time they can demand on the prosecutors, he added. Public defenders are drowning them in motions and extensions for the misdemeanor crimes, Knodell added...

He said public defenders play a role in overcrowding because their client sometimes stays in jail while waiting for trial. If the process were expedited, they wouldn't be in the jail because they would be transported to another juvenile facility to serve their time...

The first time a juvenile is prosecuted, they should be doing jail time, he said. The court system is teaching young criminals what they did is not their fault and they need counseling to cure their ailment...

Knodell vowed a promise to prosecute juveniles to the full extent the law allows for all misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor crimes to get maximum jail sentences. "The best thing we can do for kids in put the fear of God in them...", he said.

Really, that's the way he talks. No, seriously. Apparently no Grant County public defenders could be found to be interviewed for the story, probably because they were all off doing dilatory and frivolous things like filing motions and talking to their clients.

Update 12/11/07: Grant County prosecutor's staffing request declined

Wholly Moses Lake

Greetings from Grant County, Washington. I love this place: it's given the blog so much material.

Fun fact about Moses Lake: out in the middle of the desert, you might look up to see a big old Japan Air Lines jet swooping in or taking off, training JAL pilots. This would explain all the Japanese restaurants.

Another fun fact: a sign on I-90 claims that Grant County produces more potatoes than any other county in the United States. Now my wife is a fiercely partisan Idahoan, with a nose that can detect a potato processing plant at 20 miles. When she saw the sign proclaiming Grant County spud supremacy, she used not one but two expletives. That was probably the wrong time to announce that the best potato I've ever eaten was in fact a Watato.

WA: bed date? you'll have to wait

In Grant County, WA, a man was alleged to have committed a murder in late September. His public defenders requested a mental evaluation in early October. The evaluation has just started in January. From the Columbia Basin Herald:

Lybbert gets mental exam - A 20-year-old Moses Lake man accused of killing his girlfriend's disabled father in September entered Eastern State Hospital last week for a mental evaluation, his lawyers said Wednesday.

WA: in Grant County, novel "effective assistance of counsel" concept causing havoc for prosecutor

The latest from Ephrata, by permission of a couple of informed sources:

On Tuesday, a Grant County Deputy Prosecutor complained in open court - on the record - that the new group of public defenders were "interviewing virtually every witness in every case" and that this... conduct was "making it difficult" for police officers to get their work done.

The prosecutor complained... that the new group of public defenders were interviewing every witness, victim, and cop, causing the system to be overburdened. The implication was "why are they wasting everyone's time and money?" The prosecutor truly believed what he was saying.

In response, the judge simply asked, "Wasn't that the point to the ACLU lawsuit?"

WA: ex- p.d. sues ACLU

From the Columbia Basin Herald:

ACLU sued by former public defender - Grant County attorneys named as being blacklisted

A former Grant County Superior Court public defender is suing the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, claiming the organization publicly targeted him late last year as a poor performer.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday... by Moses Lake attorney Randy Smith... alleging "defamation," "invasion of privacy" and "disclosure of private facts," according to court documents... Smith's lawsuit comes 10 months after the ACLU and Columbia Legal Services won a highly publicized $500,000 settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit the two nonprofit organizations brought against Grant County, alleging an inadequate public defense system.

As part of the settlement agreement, the ACLU insisted the county deny Smith and Moses Lake attorney Ted Mahr... future contracts. The county agreed, but the two names were to be kept secret in a sealed court document.

But the ACLU revealed the two names, attaching the sealed document to copies of the settlement agreement the organization e-mailed to media outlets...

WA: post-trial bombshell from juvenile murder co-D

From Grant County's Columbia Basin Herald:

Savoie's defense team says Eakin confessed to murdering companion

Defense attorneys for 15-year-old convicted murderer Evan Savoie claim the boy's teenage co-defendant and lifelong friend, Jake Eakin, mailed a jail-house letter to Savoie's mother last month, allegedly confessing he "killed Craig Sorger, not Evan..."

During Savoie's trial, Eakin, 15 of Moses Lake, testified as the state's star witness... On Thursday, Savoie's defense co-counsel Monty Hormel filed a motion for relief from the judgment and sentence, citing the "unsolicited letter" received by Savoie's mother, Holly Parent, in mid-July from Eakin...

In the one-pager letter, Eakin stated "the system" twisted his mind and forced him to testify against Savoie. He said it seemed "like if I didn't (testify) I would get more time..." Following sentencing, Savoie was transported to Green Hill School Juvenile Facility in Chehalis. Eakin is also serving time there...

First the testifying against the co-defendant phase, now the recanting phase. I don't know how this will play out, and this isn't the first murder case where this has come up, but it's the latest twist in a badly twisted story.

WA: things looking up in Ephrata & Moses Lake

From the Columbia Basin Herald:

Public defense system improving, report says

Grant County's embattled public defender system has continued to show signs of improvement, following increased criminal defense training and reduced attorney case assignments during the last few months, a report issued this week shows...

From the Yakima Herald Republic:

Grant County improving public defender program

Grant County public defenders have continued to decrease caseloads and increase face time with defendants, a new report concludes...

WA: 26 years for 12-year-old murderer

In Grant County, Evan Savoie has been sentenced to 26 years in prison, the top of the standard range, for the murder of Craig Sorger.

Savoie is now 15. He was 12, and Sorger 13, at the time of the crime.

WA: Grant County teenage murderer guilty

This afternoon a jury in central Washington found Evan Savoie, now 15, guilty of murdering Craig Sorger, age 13.

Ephrata teen convicted of slaying playmate

A jury today convicted a 15-year-old Ephrata boy of first-degree murder for a brutal attack on a developmentally disabled playmate more than three years ago... He will be sentenced June 5.

WA: Evan Savoie testifies

In Grant County today:

Ephrata murder trial defendant says victim fell from tree

A teenager accused of murdering a playmate more than three years ago stuck to his story Wednesday when he took the stand in his own defense, saying he left the victim injured on the ground after a fall from a tree and never attacked him.

Evan Savoie, now 15 but just 12 years old at the time of the killing, is among the youngest murder defendants in the state ever to be tried as an adult...

The defense claims someone else must have killed Sorger.

But see:

Teen watched as best friend was murdered - A 15-year-old boy testified Tuesday he saw his friend Craig Sorger murdered by two boys at Oasis Park on Feb. 15, 2003.

WA: a twist in the Sorger murder trial

From the Columbia Basin Herald:

Teen claims to have witnessed murder - Defense to suggest 15-year-old Cody Cook involved in killing of Craig Sorger

Despite Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen's ruling before the first-degree murder trial of 15-year-old Evan Savoie began that the defense team could not argue another person had the motive or opportunity to kill Craig Sorger, 13, Savoie's attorneys plan to suggest another teen is the alleged perpetrator.

Defense attorneys called Kerry Cook... They questioned her extensively about her son Cody Cook, a 15-year-old with a troubled past who wrote about Sorger's murder while serving time in juvy...

WA: good news from Ephrata

... for a change. From the P-I:

Public defender office improving in Grant County

A new report has found that the beleaguered public defender system in Grant County has taken "significant steps" toward improving.

Seattle attorney Jeffery Robinson, in his first court-ordered quarterly report, concluded there was no need for the court to enforce terms of last year's settlement between the county and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I think they're taking this seriously, and they're trying to do the things necessary to fix the problems," Robinson said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Wenatchee World...

WA: Grant Co. teen murder opening statement

From Ephrata:

Defense points finger at police

Monty Hormel, (Evan) Savoie's attorney, asked jurors to look at the "very narrow timeline" of events and said there wasn't enough time for the boys to commit the brutal murder and return home when they did...

Hormel criticized the Ephrata police investigation. "There were a lot of people around and the police hardly interviewed anyone," Hormel told jurors. "They focused on these two boys to the exclusion of everybody else..."

WA: Grant County teen murder trial starting

Evan Savoie's murder trial begins Monday in Ephrata. He's being tried as an adult in the murder of Craig Sorger. Sorger was 13 at the time, Savoie 12. Co-defendant Jake Eakin is expected to testify for the state.