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Multnomah County\u2019s public defender shortage is only getting more acute, new data shows.<\/p>\n
Today, 1,063 people in Multnomah County who were eligible to be represented by a court-appointed attorney did not have one, according to state data. That\u2019s the highest number recorded in the last month, since the Oregon Judicial Department began publishing the data on a new dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n The statewide problem is having ripple effects across the criminal justice system, and is creating headaches for Portland\u2019s prosecutors as they watch defendants walk free when a court is unable to appoint an attorney.<\/p>\n In an interview for this week\u2019s cover story<\/a> on criminal activity around Dawson Park, deputy district attorney Eric Palmer cited two recent cases where charges were dropped because no defense attorney was available.<\/p>\n In one, a woman accused a man of shoving her head into a doorframe after soliciting sex acts at the Dawson Park bus stop. In another, officers patrolling the neighborhood found a loaded Glock 9 mm pistol in a car owned by a man with a felony conviction.<\/p>\n The state is currently facing a class action lawsuit brought by four criminal defendants who had been denied a court-appointed attorney. According to the May lawsuit, 500 criminal defendants statewide who were waiting to be assigned an attorney.<\/p>\n When asked for an updated count in August, the state agency responsible for public defenders, the Office of Public Defense Services, forwarded WW<\/i> an email with a list of 189 names. Two weeks later, when asked for updated data, the agency did not provide a list, citing privacy issues.<\/p>\n Instead, its general counsel, Eric J. Deitrick, pointed WW<\/i> to a new dashboard, which is managed by the Oregon Judicial Department.<\/p>\n The dashboard currently counts 1,458 unrepresented people, although that number includes those with active warrants, probation violations, and non-criminal cases.<\/p>\n Oregon Chief Justice Martha L. Walters recently dissolved the commission that oversees the state\u2019s Office of Public Defense Services after it failed to fire the agency\u2019s director<\/a>, who Walters had clashed with. The new commissioners named by Walters completed the job.<\/p>\n \u201c[The] issue needs to remain front and center as we continue to work on systemic issues within our current public defense system,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n The new commission meets tomorrow with plans to discuss proposals from the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association to address what the group calls an \u201cunprecedented crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n