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By Mike Donoghue
Vermont News First
A version of this story has appeared in the Caledonian-Record
The federal judiciary has run out of money to pay for defense lawyers assigned to represent criminal defendants in Vermont.
Chief Federal Defender Michael Desautels said in an email to Vermont defense lawyers that he has been told the financial account used to pay them is empty.
Meanwhile, defense lawyers have been asked to keep doing the work with the hope that money will be found so that they can get paid.
The money shortfall impacts only federal criminal cases, not state court cases.
The impact is targeted at Vermont lawyers who are used under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) to defend clients who Desautels’ office can not represent due to a conflict of interest.
The conflicts can happen for many reasons, most frequently when there are multiple defendants for the same criminal prosecution.
“Available CJA panel attorney funds have been depleted,” according to an email from Elizabeth Brown Luck, Chief of the Defender Services Office at the Administrative Office (AO) for United States Courts.
“Voucher payments will be deferred until additional funding becomes available,” she wrote.
The financial shortage apparently does not impact the full-time Federal Defender’s Office in Vermont.
Attempts to reach Desautels were unsuccessful.
Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss said Tuesday it is disappointing for the defense bar that puts in significant time defending those accused of serious crimes.
“The people work very hard. The work is important,” Reiss said.
Reiss said she was told it had happened at least one other time and it lasted for about three months.
In the end, those lawyers were paid for their time, Reiss said.
The idea that defense lawyers may or may not get paid does not sit well with some in the defense bar in Vermont.
Burlington defense lawyer Lisa Shelkrot said it also impacts the payment of individuals used by private attorneys in defending cases, including translators, investigators, expert witnesses, and mental health professionals.
She said some of those professionals work for themselves or out of small offices and are dependent on prompt payment by the government.
Shelkrot represents Vermont on a panel of lawyers that come from the 94 court districts that help oversee the CJA on a national level.
St. Johnsbury lawyer David Sleigh has taken on some big federal cases through the years, including one that may turn into a death penalty case in Vermont.
He said two weeks ago, his defense team went to Washington, D.C., to argue a case at the Justice Department on why the death penalty should not be considered for a former Stowe man who is accused of killing two out-of-state drug dealers in the Northeast Kingdom.
Sleigh said considerable work has gone into defending Theodore “Theo” Bland of Burlington, and the fight will continue in the double homicide case.
Sleigh said he does not expect an answer on the death penalty for 2 or 3 months. Meanwhile, Sleigh said he may opt to pass on taking any new federal cases until the financial issues are cleared up.
Bennington lawyer David Silver, who is a former federal defender in Manhattan, said he has taken on federal CJA cases since he became a private lawyer in 1992.
“I do it out of sense of public service,” Silver said.
He said it is not just indigent people, but some clients are in the middle and upper class who can’t afford a defense lawyer for all kinds of federal cases.
Silver said it is frustrating to see Washington, D.C. overspending for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while defunding the Department of Education and the State Department.
It is a matter of having “proper priorities. I am feeling resentful right now,” Silver said in a phone interview.
“It leaves a sour taste in my mouth,” Silver said.
Luck noted that a federal judge had said, “Securing necessary funds to provide fair and timely compensation to appointed counsel and CJA service providers is of the highest priority for the judiciary, as the work of these individuals is critical to the administration of justice and protecting the rights of the accused in our federal courts.”
She added, “The judiciary will continue to seek every opportunity to obtain additional funding to meet this need.”
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Categories: Court, Law Enforcement, Public Safety
We are to believe the Chief of the Defender Services Office at the Administrative Office (AO) for United States Courts was not aware of a shortfall prior to the email?
In reviewing the Financial Services General Government budgets submitted to Congress – FY2024 and FY2025 – $36 Billion 2024 and 2025 (requested $52 Billion) stuck in congressional limbo – which means we are running on fumes aka continuing resolutions.
Perhaps the proverbial “carnary in the coal mine” is singing? Yet, some how, some way, with a deficit of $-37 Trillion – the USA has plenty of money to fund and arm foreign wars and fund illegals with healthcare, housing, transportation, and loaded EBT/debit cards. Of course, Congress is fully funded and fully stocked nonetheless.
Stop using taxpayers money on worthless drug addicts and repeat offenders! If the state didn’t waste 33 million on hotel vouchers and illegal immigrants they would have more for other programs
It is important to recall that all persons are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. Additionally the Due Process Clause guarantees effective assistance of counsel to those accused of crimes.
Although every citizen is entitled to an effective council when accused of a crime, what happened to the system of part of your admission to the BAR agreeing to be randomly assigned indigent cases on a rotating basis. ProBono
As much as several defense lawyers I’ve witnessed in court anger and annoy the heck out of me with some of their outrageous efforts to get their clients off, or mitigate or eliminate the sentences for heinous crimes, I also must agree with Mr. Conroy’s reply below.
I must always remember that our criminal legal system, with all its flaws and shortcomings, is still the best in the world. And I must always remember that theoretically, the main purpose of a defense attorney is to ensure that the rights of his or client are upheld, notwithstanding the severity of the crimes, and that if I were on trial and was innocent until proven guilty, I would want to make sure my rights were respected and that I could not be unfairly or illegally convicted and condemned.
There are enough kangaroo courts in the world and, unfortunately, even here in the USA, in which because of political or religious ideologies, those accused are railroaded and condemned by corrupt and evil prosecutors, judges, and false witnesses. Case in point: the sham trial of Jesus.
As Jefferson said,
“I’d rather the inconveniences that attend with too much liberty than with too little.”
Think Siberia, concentration camps, and January 6th and bogus FACE Act convictions against peaceful abortion protesters.
DC has so poorly mismanaged everything, Washington must send back to the state and local level, just about every function they can, and fire every civil servant who spent more than allocated to, if they can not manage the taxpayers hard earned money… well…there’s the door, and don’t let it hit you in the butt on the way out. As to the citizen paying the lawyer of the bad guys, the state should not contract that out, but have it done in house, or by law students ,to handle that function. The taxpayer is burdened enough by idiocy, by governance. Enough!!! Can’t do the time? Don’t do the crime. Get a job like everyone else.