Kootenai County cases stall as public defender shortage takes hold

COEUR d’ALENE — As a shortage of public defenders continues to strain North Idaho’s legal system, Kootenai County’s top public defender says there’s no end in sight.

Public defense services in Idaho’s 44 counties were recently consolidated into the office of the State Public Defender. Though the new system was created in response to lawsuits over Idaho’s deficiencies in public defense, it has led to an exodus of public defenders from county offices and numerous indigent defendants appearing in court without any specific attorney prepared to represent them. 

First District Judge Robert Caldwell called a hearing this week to address the cases of four such defendants. 

“I’m almost in my 16th year as a judge,” Caldwell said in court Wednesday. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really problematic, not so much how the court is being treated but how the people are being treated.” 

By the time the hearing began, a specific attorney had been assigned to each case, one as recently as that morning. But the question of how the shortage of public defenders will impact other cases remained. 

Caldwell described a defendant who showed up for court but had no attorney to represent him. The man said he’d been unable to reach anyone in the public defender’s office. At the time, Caldwell advised him to keep trying. 

“I thought of how unbelievable it was that I would have to tell somebody that they have to chase down their appointed counsel just to get a hold of them,” Caldwell said. “It’s not OK, from my perspective, (for public defenders) to just miss court. I’m not going to let it happen.” 

Jay Logsdon, the lead public defender for the First District, said he didn’t disagree with the judge. 

“The problem is we don’t have any people to send,” he said. 

There is a dearth of public defenders in North Idaho, Logsdon said. In Kootenai County, just 11 public defenders are struggling to manage cases that ought to be distributed among a staff of 26 attorneys. Meanwhile, Shoshone County has no institutional office for public defense; as the First District Public Defender, Logsdon is managing indigent defense for the entire county. 

“I don’t believe people should have to choose between the right to a speedy trial and effective counsel,” Logsdon said. “They should be getting both. The trouble is that I am not in a position to ensure that they are getting either.” 

Some attorneys have attributed the mass departure of public defenders to pay rate changes. Under the state office’s pay structure, about 77% of public defenders throughout the state received raises in the first year, while about 15% had their pay cut, including some attorneys in Kootenai County. 

Before the new public defense system went into effect, Kootenai County contracted with more than 30 local private attorneys to represent indigent defendants when there was a conflict of interest or when caseloads were full. 

The county paid those attorneys $150 per hour, while the State Public Defender pays $100 per hour, a rate that Logsdon described as “not palatable to the vast majority of attorneys.” 

As a result, most contract attorneys in Kootenai County declined to work for the state. Only six private attorneys have contracted with the state to handle public defense cases in Kootenai County. 

“I don’t know that there’s going to be a solution until somebody changes the rules, in terms of what they’re willing to pay those contract attorneys, and the only people who can make those decisions are down in Boise,” Logsdon said. “I have no control over that policy. I don’t agree with what’s going on.” 

Regardless of staffing shortages, Caldwell said public defenders who appear in his courtroom must be prepared to represent the indigent defendants on the docket. 

“These are people, citizens, that are charged with a crime and are in my courtroom,” he said. “They’re looking at me, wondering where their lawyer is.” 

Ryan Hunter, chief deputy city attorney for Coeur d’Alene, said defendants aren’t the only people affected by a shortage of public defenders. When proceedings can’t go on because a defendant has no representation, cases stall. These delays can harm crime victims, Hunter said. 

“If crime goes unprosecuted, justice is not done,” he said.