06:05 PM CDT on Friday, June 30, 2006

Associated Press

A judge here issued a subpoena Friday ordering Gov. Kathleen Blanco to appear in his court in late July to discuss the struggling public defender system.

Judge Arthur Hunter's order followed a morning fact-finding hearing over how the cash-strapped and understaffed public defender office in Orleans will manage to represent poor defendants in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The Orleans Parish Indigent Defender program had 70 attorneys before Katrina, but now has fewer than 30 on board, said Chief Public Defender Tilden Greenbaum.

Blanco persuaded the Legislature to double the money allotted to the statewide Indigent Defender program, to $20 million, but it still must be shared among 41 districts.

Almost three-quarters of the Orleans Parish public defender program is paid for by traffic fines and fees, which dropped drastically after the storm.

At Friday's hearing, attorney Phil Wittmann said the newly appointed Orleans Parish Indigent Defender Board, of which he is a member, is making strides to repair the public defense program in Orleans. The board has just hired Ronald Sullivan, a Yale Law School professor and a former director of the Washington, D.C. public defender program, to help organize Orleans' indigent defender office.

Pre-Katrina, the public defender office in New Orleans ran on a $2.5 million annual budget. Public defenders are paid $29,000 annually, which the Justice Department called insufficient, although attorneys often work part time for the court system and handle private cases on the side.

Although the storm cut into revenue, recently, the state bar association has kicked in about $1 million for indigent defense.

The Justice Department has awarded the New Orleans indigent defender program $2.8 million. Still, a Justice Department study recently concluded that the public defender's office in New Orleans needs at least $10 million annually to operate.

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