No Defense for County

When the County Board of Supervisors reneged on its commitment to establish a nonprofit organization to handle indigent defense, Supervisor Brian Bilbray cited cost as the deciding factor for his critical vote change.

Yet the cost of the proposal is no more than it was four months ago when it was tentatively approved by the board. Even then, the difference between the Community Defenders Inc. proposal and the county’s proposal for a public defender’s office was relatively minimal. Community Defenders was asking $12.2 million a year for 146 lawyers, while the county was proposing $11.5 million and 128 lawyers. Both proposals included fewer attorneys than recommended by the county’s advisory board to handle an estimated 30,000 cases each year.

What changed in the interim was the political cost of approving Community Defenders. The question of quality took a back seat to 15-year-old allegations that Alex Landon, the well-respected San Diego attorney chosen in a nationwide search to head Community Defenders, had been involved in a prison escape in which one guard was killed and another was wounded. The allegations were made, and later recanted, by the man who escaped.

The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office investigated in 1973 but did not file charges, and the California State Bar said there was insufficient evidence for disciplinary action. Landon was barred from entering state prisons, however.

The matter was closed until the Community Defenders’ contract was tentatively approved in January. Then, Assemblyman Larry Stirling pushed for a new investigation of the allegations. That investigation is pending. Meanwhile, a separate investigation was conducted for the board of Community Defenders. It concluded that there was insufficient evidence to connect Landon to the escape but that telephone calls between the escapee and Landon raised disturbing questions.

Landon maintains he is innocent, but he stepped down as head of Community Defenders in an attempt to save the contract.

But that proved insufficient. Bilbray changed his vote, even though just five weeks earlier he said he “voted for Community Defenders because it was a good concept, no matter who’s carrying the flag.” That was true then. It still is.

But now Bilbray says Community Defenders is a Cadillac program when the county can’t afford Cadillacs. We disagree. The proposal was a solid one, which promised to upgrade public defense while saving the county money. It’s a shame that it fell victim to Stirling’s questionable revival of old accusations against Landon.

Now the burden is on county administrators to establish a quality public defender’s office, something they certainly are capable of doing if given adequate resources. Cost is an ever-present consideration, but the Board of Supervisors needs to remember that it was a price-shopping mentality that earned the county’s public defense system a poor reputation in the first place.