This actually happened recently in my office.
Defendant applied for a public defender on a Monday. Defendant was in jail when he applied & was going to be in custody until his next hrg. Next hrg was scheduled on Friday at 1:00 p.m.
Court reviewed the application for a public defender on Friday about 12:00 p.m. The clerk emailed our office at 12:15 p.m.to say that the defendant was appointed to our office & the hrg was in 45 minutes. No attorneys where in the office (bc it was lunch time) & even if they were, the county where this court is located is 45 minutes away, so the attorney would have zero time to talk to the defendant before the hrg. Our staff notified the court that there were no attorneys available on such short notice.
The defendant's hrg still took place, without a public defender present. Somehow the court got the defendant to agree to proceed w/o counsel (probably threw us under the bus & said we wouldn't send anyone, but failed to mention that we couldn't send anyone bc we weren't given advanced notice of the hrg). At a contested probation hrg.
Fabulous. Justice clearly served.
This kind of crap Pisses me off...sounds like something Itasca County would do. Is it bad to use my real name on here...don't care. :-)
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