State public defender system up for audit
The Boone County Office has one of the highest caseloads in the state.
Published Aug. 31, 2010
A statewide audit might clear up a dispute as to whether the Missouri State Public Defender System is overburdened with cases, MSPD Deputy Director Cat Kelly said. Their offices in Springfield and Troy closed for the first two weeks of August, claiming they were unable to take in more cases.
"There's a lot of dispute as to whether we have the caseload crisis that we know we have," Kelly said.
St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch requested an audit of the MSPD in late July, and MSPD Director Marty Robinson requested an audit in the beginning of August, Kelly said.
Allison Bruns, Missouri State Auditor's Office spokeswoman, said those requests and others prompted State Auditor Susan Montee to run the audit.
"It was really just all sides of the table," Bruns said.
Montee is aware that some public defender offices refused to take new cases for a few weeks, but that was not a direct influence on her decision, Bruns said.
Fourteen MSPD offices, including the one in Boone County, have given notice that they are in danger of having to close temporarily, Kelly said.
Tony Manansala, District Defender for the Columbia Trial Office, said the Boone County public defender office has one of the highest average caseloads in the state.
"We fluctuate between the top five, top 10 or 11 offices in the state as far as number of cases," he said.
At the end of June, Manansala said, Boone County public defenders were operating at 150 percent of their capacity.
In his audit request, McCulloch questioned whether the MSPD was efficiently using the funding and resources they have.
"Until all interested parties have accurate numbers, it is not possible to determine if the (MSPD) is overburdened and, if so, the extent of the excess work," he wrote in a letter to Montee.
The auditor's office has added this commission to their audit plan, but it is not clear how long the auditing process will take, Bruns said.
"We have committed to starting this audit this calendar year, so sometime before Dec. 31," she said.
Once the auditors have studied the system's expenditures, Bruns said, they will make recommendations to the auditees and help them institute needed changes.
"We work with them every step of the way," she said.
The auditor's office will also present its findings to 16 state government officials, including the governor. It is up to the state legislature to determine funding for the system.
"We're not sure what the scope of the audit will be," Kelly said. "We are hopeful that it will address issues of performance and caseload as well as the handling of finances, and so on."
If the Boone County public defender office closed to new cases, Manansala said, some defendants would be left without attorneys. In response to this, the Boone County Bar Association formed a committee to explore alternative processes for these cases.
Though the public defender office in Boone County does not usually have students as defendants, Manansala said, law school students often intern there, helping public defenders prepare for trial.