INDIANAPOLIS — Kenneth Alford was arrested in January 2015 on charges that included sexual misconduct with a minor. That month, Alford requested a public defender.
During the first seven months following his arrest, a court-assigned public defender met twice with Alford, each time in court for a total of two minutes, according to court documents. By September, a new public defender was named.
Thirteen months later, Alford was sentenced to 834 days in jail under a plea deal he said he was pressured to accept, according to court documents.
Six other men, also arrested in Johnson County, faced similar problems alleging little contact with their public defenders, according to a lawsuit.
In many cases, the problems could lead to a complaint over ineffective counsel. But one of Alford’s attorneys, Jessica Wegg, said last week that this was a case of “no counsel.”
In October 2015, the seven men filed a class-action complaint alleging they were being denied assistance of counsel as guaranteed by the U.S. and Indiana constitutions.
If they win their case, it could mean that Johnson County, and perhaps other Indiana courts, must provide public defenders to all indigent defendants.
In one Johnson County example, a public defender was assigned 176 felony cases and 32 misdemeanors cases. Of the 176, 140 were resolved in 2014 including 106 by plea agreements, according to the lawsuit.
“These deficiencies run so deep and are so pervasive that there is simply no way that the public defense system in Johnson County can result in the constitutionally adequate provision of assistance of counsel,” Wegg said in an October filing for the men.
Currently the decision to appoint a public defender is left up to a judge who considers numerous factors including whether attorneys, contracted with a court for public defender services, have room on their schedules to handle a defense.
The seven men sued the Johnson County Commissioners as well as the judges who presided over the cases and the public defenders who had contracts to provide services. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss, which was granted in January by Shelby Superior Court.
Attorneys for the men sought an appeal, which was heard last week by three Indiana Court of Appeals judges.