FOX 14 TV Joplin and Pittsburg News Weather Sports |Delayed Justice: In-depth look at public defenders increasing caseload

Delayed Justice: In-depth look at public defenders increasing caseload

By NINA CRISCUOLO

JASPER COUNTY, MO. - Missouri's criminal justice system stretches thin under the public defender workload.

A recent report says little has improved in southwest Missouri since a similar study in 2005.

"You operate in crisis mode every day," Jasper County public defender Brett Meeker told us.  "You say 'ok, this is what I have to do tomorrow' or 'this is what's coming up for this week.'"

Meeker describes her daily routine with a swelling workload.  She is now dealing with nearly 100 cases.

"I've never had a caseload that's been normal," Meeker says.

After five years of serving as a public defender she has seen her case load increase.  She says the economic downturn is forcing more people to turn to public defenders.

"More people are qualifying because they don't have jobs, they don't have money from savings, from a house or equity in a house to pay for a private attorney, so we're faced with those," says Meeker.  "The types of crimes that we're dealing with are more serious and also the clients are somewhat needing more because they have issues with drugs or mental health issues or things like that."

The decision to take on a case is made based on the accused's ability or inability to pay for legal counsel.  And for inmates waiting on the outcome pending charges their day in front of a judge can not come soon enough.

Kendall Rogers is an inmate at the Newton County jail who has already spent more than 240 days in jail while facing a child endangerment charge.

"It's the not knowing part - you see people come in and run through the system and then they're out before you, that's the frustrating part - the not knowing part," Rogers says.  "There's no one watching over your shoulder or watching you back."

Rogers says he struggles with the loss of everyday rights.

"Probably not being able to call family because you have collect calls and people nowadays has cell phones, so that's probably the hardest part," Rogers says.  "But I don't know.  I've lost 65 pounds since I've been here, that's been a plus."

And Rogers is not alone.  Roxanne Muskrat has spent nearly five months in jail waiting for a preliminary hearing for drug charges.

"My bracelet says '24 hold' but it's been this long and it's just another day, I don't count them," Muskrat says.  "I don't count down."

Muskrat is a mother of two and says the situation with the justice system has been difficult for her but even worse for her family.  Recently she stopped updating her family.

"You get overwhelmed that you're going to leave - like tomorrow - you call your family, you call everyone you know, you get all excited and then it's a big letdown whenever you don't and it hurts everybody else," Muskrat told us.

"I think everybody is impacted in that situation," public defender Meeker says.  "I can certainly see how a victim's family would be frustrated with the system and how it moves and how an inmate would be frustrated and want their case moving.  But I think what everyone needs to understand is that there are certain safeguards that everyone is entitled to.  Everybody has the same rights."

But the Missouri Public Defender Commission says in 2009 the seven public defenders in Jasper County were assigned nearly 4,000 cases.  That is a statistic that the commission says proves that defenders caseloads remain too high.

And Meeker says as her caseload continues to increase more and more cases lack the attention they deserve which can become a frustration not only for the victim and those facing charges, but for Meeker herself.

"You do it but oh it could have been so much better if I had more time," Meeker says.  "So some of it's just striking that balance of  if I can file this and it can be good or fine, but it could have been so much better."

Meeker says while she struggles to provide speedy trials with effective representation at this pace she will not be able to keep up.

"You get tired," says victim's advocate Kerri Freeman.  "You get tired of fighting."

Freeman describes what it is like to sit though 17 court dates after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver.

"The justice system takes so long to get done, by the time we got to the point where they offered a plea we were tired - we just took it," Freeman says.

Now, Freeman serves as a victims advocate to comfort others during their journey for justice.  She says the struggle increases when a public defender is involved.

"It just gets postponed, postponed, postponed, and I understand their work load and you can't blame them, but something has to be done because by the time the victim gets to the end she's more worn out than she was on day one," Freeman says.

That is a point Jasper County public defender Brett Meeker does not oppose.

"I knew when I came in that public defender caseload are high," Meeker says.

But, she says her current caseload is overwhelming.

"We need more funding, we need more attorneys, we need more support staff," Meeker says.  "That's really where the rubber meets the road.  That's what we need - more attorneys, more support staff to do our jobs and to really do them well."

Meeker says the economy puts more people into a financial situation that qualifies them for a public attorney.  But it is not just that.

For example, in 2009 the Jasper County public defenders opened nearly 2,000 cases in appeals court... the highest amount in the decade.

It is a burden in Missouri that lawyers across the state line do not envy.

"I'm not trying to knock the Missouri public defenders, but I see them come in with the stacks and stacks of cases and you know that there can't be time to sit down and read them and meet with clients and do all those type of things," says Sam Marsh, a private attorney based in Cherokee County, Kansas.

In Jasper County seven attorneys share the case load.  In 2009 alone the office closed 2400 trial cases.  That is about 340 for each attorney.

But in southeast Kansas private attorneys like Marsh take on the responsibility.  There, attorney's completed just 600 appointed cases or about 23 each.

The state of Kansas does not designate public defenders in Crawford, Cherokee, and Labette counties.  Instead, lawyers with private practices have the option of taking on public defender clients.

"The benefit here is if we have eight attorneys in Cherokee County who are on the appointment list, in essence you have an eight person public defenders office with all the secretarial and support staff and those kind of things, and that's probably the benefit that I see there," says Marsh.

Marsh says southeast Kansas also allows attorneys to supplement their income with private work and saves the state the overhead costs of an office building.

In Missouri the bar association has experimented with a hybrid system, encouraging private attorneys in Greene County to donate their time in lieu of discounts on license costs.

"Any help we can get by private attorneys doing things like that will help," Meeker says, "but I think ultimately they can only do so much because that's kind of their money maker too."

The state of Missouri Public Defender Commission agrees saying that the programs like the one in Greene County can not be relied upon as a permanent fix and is scheduled to expire in the fall of 2010.

But a report by the Missouri Criminal Justice System says until something is done to relieve public defenders, the system will remain on the brink of collapse, an  effect felt by inmates, attorney, and the victims.

"It is difficult," Freeman says.  "You just want to scream.  You just want to say do something."