08:58 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Mary Foster / Associated Press

A report from the U.S. Justice Department that said the New Orleans indigent defender office needs 70-full-time attorneys and $10 million in cash will be the blueprint for rebuilding that agency, the New Orleans court's chief judge said Wednesday.

"It's not going to happen overnight, and what we do may not be exactly what they call for," said Judge Calvin Johnson. "But the Justice Department report is going to be the foundation for rebuilding the public defender's office and making sure there is justice for everyone."

The report, made public Wednesday, concludes that in the New Orleans criminal justice system, "the only justice that can be meted out today is for those who can pay for a lawyer and a bondsman." For the poor, it states, justice is simply unavailable.

Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, the office was in trouble, the report said. Before the Aug. 29 storm, the indigent defender's office had 42 lawyers, six investigators, six office workers and a $2.2 million annual budget. After the storm it dropped to six attorneys, one investigator, one office worker.

Since then, six more lawyers have been hired.

In February, one judge went so far as to suspend all trials in his courtroom involving the indigent defender's office, saying it could not provide adequate defense for suspects.

On Wednesday, the judge, Arthur Hunter, said he would not drop the order until the office was "sufficiently funded by the Louisiana Legislature."

The Justice Department report makes both short- and long-term recommendations for improving the office.

A five-month emergency intervention plan has six goals, including addressing the backlog of cases, hiring full-time, client-centered public defenders, appointing a professional board and bringing in an "esteemed individual to serve for a limited period of time (five-six months) as an interim director."

"They need to bring in someone with vision and guts to deal with the backlog," said Barry Gerharz, legal director for Safe Streets/Strong Communities, which has been monitoring the office.

"You have to have vision and the strength needed to make things happen."

A major change recommended by the report would assign public defenders to a case rather than a court. Under the current practice, defendants see a public defender briefly when bond is set. The defendant often won't see a public defender again until the next court date, after the case has been assigned to a different judge; and the defender often will not be the same one who was present at the bond hearing.

"In 2004 the district attorney refused 14,000 cases and accepted 9,000," Gerharz said. "A lot of those might have been refused as well if the defendants had been able to see a lawyer earlier."

Among the long-term suggestions is a better source of funding for the public defender program. The office currently receives 75 percent of its funding from traffic court fines, which have been nonexistent since Katrina.

"Strong consideration should be give to a system of state funding; programs that rely on local funding often result in having the least resources in economically challenged areas, where the need for services is greatest," the report said.

The report also notes the need for better tracking of cases, the use of private attorneys to help eliminate the enormous backlog of about 5,000 cases, and a substantial restructuring of the focus and goals of the office.

"You can't just turn a switch and make those things happen," Johnson said. "But we need to start planning and working toward them."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)