Public defender’s grandstanding masks office issues
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
March 17, 2009
Politicians grandstanding in public will almost certainly attract headlines. To that end, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi has been a busy man as of late.
Adachi claims he wants money — not necessarily more scrutiny — which makes his recent actions rather curious, because some stunts have been known to be dangerous to your health.
Adachi is on a mission to secure more funding for his department at a time when every agency in San Francisco is cutting back, the result of a projected $460 million deficit. He claims he needs $1.7 million for staffing — other departments are trimming 25 percent of their budgets — acting as a legal lone ranger who is neither making friends nor influencing people.
Last week, Adachi started showing up at the new Community Justice Center in the Tenderloin, claiming he couldn’t spare one of the 93 attorneys in his office to man the court, a task that would now fall to him. That aroused a good laugh from court officials, something that doesn’t happen a lot when the Public Defender’s Office comes up in conversation.
A straight-faced Adachi told me he was taking the lowly shift because of an increase in cases.
"The difference between the District Attorney’s Office and my office is that all my attorneys have caseloads and we have an obligation to every one of those people who are represented," he said. "If I moved an attorney from the Hall of Justice, I would have to have them drop those clients."
There’s no doubting that Adachi has been a strong advocate for his clients or that he’s about as smart and crafty as anyone working in city courts these days. Judges say he has put together a devoted and hard-working army of attorneys (Adachi claims his office wins about 40 percent of all the cases that go to trial).
But it’s the quality of the cases that perplexes court officials. Since taking office six years ago, Adachi has greatly increased the number of misdemeanor cases being held for trial. According to a 2007 report on criminal case-flow management, San Francisco’s misdemeanor-trial rate is nine times greater than the statewide average.
Prosecutors say that strategy has resulted in the courts being tied up with cases involving minor crimes while more serious felony cases lag, which also means more jail overcrowding. Those are factors that cost San Francisco taxpayers millions. Those delays also tip the scales in favor of defense attorneys under the premise that the longer a case lingers, the greater the chance for acquittal or dismissal.
The same management report also noted that the "young attorneys" in the Public Defender’s Office operate under a policy where they must complete at least 20 misdemeanor jury trials before being promoted, a practice that has left some judges to openly wonder if Adachi has a quota system that persuades his defense lawyers to handle marginal cases. Adachi has repeatedly denied that any quotas exist, but with the caveat that the expectation is that they must try a lot of cases.
"The quibble seems to be around the definition of the word quota," said Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy. "The fact that we have nine times the rate of misdemeanor cases going to trial tells us that there’s something else going on.’’
Adachi has been trying to suggest that cutting his staff will cost more money in the long haul because the attorneys on his staff are not paid overtime and The City would be forced to outsource cases to the private bar — a contention that The City’s budget analyst strongly disputes. And, he told me he would not be lobbying for extra attorneys if Mayor Gavin Newsom had not approved more staffing for police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
But it’s not an argument he’s going to win, no matter how many times he goes to the Community Justice Center to show the world how thinly stretched his resources are. In fact, just last week the state Courts of Appeal ruled that
cash-strapped public defenders must give their clients a reasonable chance, even if it means turning away some people or declining other duties.
It appears heavy caseloads and dwindling resources are not an excuse for improper representation. A vast majority of other cities and counties are also in the same boat — they’re just not rocking it as much as the ambitious Adachi, who seems to believe that fighting with City Hall is going to net him what he wants.
Instead, supervisors are looking into his office’s operation and officials are questioning a strategy in which minor cases end up clogging San Francisco’s courtrooms.
That sounds less like a brilliant strategy and more like a recipe for unraveling. But, it sure is fun to watch.
Ken Garcia appears Tuesdays and Fridays in The Examiner. Check out his blog at sfexaminer.com/opinion or e-mail him at kgarcia@sfexaminer.com.
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