D.A., Public Defender Cite Heavy Caseload

With three capital murder cases pending, the Ventura County district attorney and public defender say their offices combined are running nearly $1 million over budget as they struggle to keep pace with an increasingly heavy caseload.

In addition to the capital cases, both officials said they could use more help to handle a 50% increase in felony trials--jumping from about 100 in 1995 to 150 last year. They attribute the rise in large part to the recently enacted three-strikes legislation and other tough sentencing laws.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury drew attention to the workload problem last week when he strongly objected to the Board of Supervisors’ decision to conduct a hiring review of all vacant county jobs to crack down on operating costs.

Bradbury, whose agency has a dozen vacant positions, called the action “a veiled hiring freeze” that would interfere with his office’s ability to carry out its work.

“To impose a hiring freeze by any name would severely hamper our operations,” Bradbury told the board.

But Bradbury is not the only one feeling the pinch. Public Defender Kenneth Clayman said his office is also being overwhelmed with work because it has to keep pace with two-thirds of the roughly 30,000 cases handled annually by the district attorney.

Clayman said his office is under even more workload pressures because it has only 43 lawyers, compared with 100 in the district attorney’s office. He also noted that his office has a $6.3-million annual budget versus $18.5-million for the district attorney.

“On it’s face, it’s almost laughable,” Clayman said of the disparity in the two budgets. “In our office, we have no vacancy factor. We couldn’t work with any vacant positions.”

The law requires that people charged with a crime who are unable to afford legal services be provided an attorney free of charge--in most cases a public defender--to ensure that their constitutional rights are protected.

The public defender, however, does not handle all cases that go through the district attorney’s office. The county has a $1.3-million annual contract with a Ventura law firm to assist the public defender in cases where there is more than one defendant to eliminate potential conflicts.

One such case is that involving Diana Haun and her boyfriend, Michael Dally, both of whom are charged with killing Dally’s wife, Sherri. The public defender’s office is representing Haun, and Conflict Defense Associates is representing Dally.

Even so, Clayman said the highly publicized case has put a severe strain on his office because of the extensive legal and investigative work that has been required, given the complex nature of the case.

Clayman also pointed out that Conflict Defense Associates has reported running over its current budget by $570,000. The county recently hired a consultant to evaluate the charges and to explore other, possibly less costly, legal-service options.

But Clayman said the district attorney’s policy of no plea bargaining, an unusually high number of capital murder cases this year and a 1994 state law that requires stiff prison terms for people with three felony convictions have all boosted legal expenses.

“When the public says they want strong law enforcement, and you have these get-tough policies, like no plea bargaining, then there is a need to provide adequate funding to do it,” Clayman said. “This means we have to have the resources to properly defend people.”

The district attorney’s office is currently running about $600,000 over budget, while the public defender is expecting additional expenses of more than $300,000, according to a recent county budget report. The Superior and Municipal courts are also running over their budgets by nearly $500,000, the report found.

The additional expenses will be covered in large part by reserves and $2.1 million in unallocated sales tax money collected under Proposition 172, officials said. Revenues collected from that half-cent sales tax measure--which generates about $30 million a year for the county--is earmarked for public safety agencies, including the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices.

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee said that most of the cost overrun in his office is due to the three capital murder cases it is handling. The case involving Hahn and Dally, for example, has five prosecutors assigned to it.

Such cases require additional investigators and expert witnesses, which also drive up costs, McGee said.

Because of its increasing caseload, McGee said, his office will probably ask the Board of Supervisors later this year for authorization to hire three or four more prosecutors.

Clayman said his office is already preparing a request to hire three more lawyers.

“There comes a point where you can’t continue to do the work with the help you have, so you have to ask for more,” he said. “I think our request is very modest. We’re not seeking to do anything other than to keep up with the caseload.”

Also, Clayman said he is seriously considering a proposal to charge some defendants a $25 registration fee to help offset some of the costs in the public defender’s office. He said a number of other counties already do this, including Santa Barbara County.

“It may be that we only collect about $25,000 the whole year, but if it helps a little, great,” Clayman said.