8/31/07 - Judge raps conflict attorney position

Calls impromptu press conference in Family Court to air his views

(As published by Cortland Standard, Aimee Milks reporting)

CORTLAND — A county judge used a Family Court case as a platform Thursday to question the validity of the county’s newly formed Conflict Attorney Office. Defense attorneys called the venue inappropriate.

Judge William Ames questioned how the office is being administered and how cases are assigned. He said the problem is that the office is being administered by the Public Defender’s Office.

With news media on hand, at the invitation of Ames’ office, Ames addressed the mother and father sitting in the courtroom, whose case is at the center of the argument over the conflict attorney position.

“You’re probably saying, ‘How did I get dragged into this.’ It’s a complex issue. It’s a serious
issue. Anything that has to be done has to be done in court and it’s your case,” Ames said.

The mother and father’s case became an issue when Ames pulled Conflict Attorney Tom Miller from representing the mother, and reassigned her case back to the Public Defenders’ Office.

Public Defender Keith Dayton said his office could not represent both clients and filed an Article 78 lawsuit against Ames in response.

Ames, who spoke for more than an hour, expanded on his and fellow County Judge Julie Campbell’s reasoning for removing Miller from numerous Family Court cases.

“The way the plan is being administered through the Public Defender’s Office is illegal, even if it was created legally,” Ames said, citing a June 2006 letter from an administrative judge saying the program should not be administered by a public defender, judge or county attorney.

Ames said the court had received assignment letters on Public Defender stationery, that some assigned counsel letters were actually signed by Dayton and that assigned counsel administrator Lynette Manning answers her phone “Public Defender’s Office.”

Manning is responsible for assigning conflict cases from the Public Defender, both to Miller and to outside attorneys in an assigned counsel pool.

The administrative judge’s letter notes that assigned counsel should be entirely separate and independent from the public defender.

Miller, who has been on the job since Aug. 6, confirmed Thursday that a few assignment letters were sent to his office on public defender stationary, not assigned counsel administrator’s stationery.