An accused rapist is one of the first to have his bail amount cut this week because of Franklin County's acute shortage of public defense attorneys.
In a second case, a man suspected of driving a stolen car was released from jail in a move to buy time for a defense attorney to be appointed.
That defendant was in jail since March 27 and still hadn't been assigned an attorney to represent him. In the case of the rape suspect, he remains in custody because of other charges.
Superior Court Judge Diana Ruff decided this week that Godolfredo Godinez-Vazquez, 31, and Kurt M. Painter, 28, were in danger of constitutional violations of their rights.
Among her choices were to dismiss all criminal charges and release them, reduce bail to give more time before they are required to face a trial or assign a private attorney to take the case.
The cases were some of the first in which a Tri-Cities judge had to make those unusual choices in Franklin County Superior Court that were spurred by the current attorney shortage.
The problem has grown so acute that county officials plan a news conference Friday, May 12, to talk about the issue facing the Tri-Cities.
In Franklin County, just three attorneys are currently under contract with the county are qualified to handle felony cases.
If a private attorney was ordered to take a case, Franklin County would be on the hook for paying the higher cost — a move that officials fear could crush county budgets.
"The reality is many smaller counties across our state will go bankrupt when private attorneys are assigned to backlog cases," Franklin County Administrator Mike Gonzalez said in a recent Facebook post.
"I'm not afraid to say, I believe that the state is partially to blame for this problem. Unfunded mandates are pushing the system to the brink of collapse," he said. "I don't believe the citizens of Franklin County should have to pay this bill."
A suspect is constitutionally entitled to a trial within two months of arraignment on formal charges if the suspect is in jail and hasn't agreed to a delay.
Or a trial must begin within three months if the person is out of custody.
The state and federal constitutions guarantee that anyone accused of a crime is entitled to an attorney if they can't afford one.
With the lack of attorneys, Franklin County's Office of Public Defense has been focusing on assigning attorneys to people in jail who are accused of violent crimes.
That has left defendants like Painter, who was reportedly driving a stolen car, with no attorney since his arrest in late March.
It's unclear what's going to happen next to address the problem.
Gonzalez told the Herald recently, they are looking to divert $300,000 from American Rescue Plan funding in an attempt to hire some lawyers and to try to keep the ones they have.
The Franklin County Prosecutors' office is asking for about the same amount of money to help them with recruitment.
The Franklin County commissioners have not voted on that proposal.
The Franklin County Office of Public Defense makes up about $1.5 million of the county's $47 million current expense budget. Of that, about $625,000 is for attorney contracts.
That amount could quickly balloon if judges need to appoint attorneys currently in private practice to handle the cases. Those attorneys are allowed to charge their normal rates, which could be far higher than the $100,000 that contract attorneys have been paid annually.
County officials are looking to Washington state to help with the costs that the county has been saddled with.
Gonzalez said he talked to Gov. Jay Inslee about the issue during Inslee's recent Tri-Cities visit.
"While the governor seemed genuinely interested in hearing about the issue, he asked me if I can institute a new county tax or float a bond to help," Gonzalez posted on Facebook.
Benton County is facing a similar, but not as severe, defense attorney shortage.
Commissioners there agreed recently to take $1 million and add it to their Office of Public Defense budget to boost salaries.
The problem with recruiting defense attorneys is not unique to Tri-Cities. The shortage is being felt nationwide.
While it's hard to pin it on a single cause, Katrin Johnson with the state Office of Public Defense said she believes it's a combination of increasing retirements and fewer law school graduates. And many recent graduates don't want to go into lower paying county jobs because their college debts are so high.
The lack of attorneys has been exacerbated by rules set by the state Supreme Court that limit who can take what cases and how many can be handled at once.
Compounding the problem is a huge backlog of trials because the COVID pandemic put many cases on hold for a couple years.
Godinez-Vazquez was initially arrested in June after he allegedly broke into the home of a woman he knew through the wall of a water heater storage compartment in December 2021.
She found him hiding under her bed, but he was gone by the time officers arrived. After his arrest, he pleaded innocent to the burglary charge and was released on his own recognizance.
Since he was released without bail, state prosecutors had three months before he had to be tried.
Starting in August 2022, his trial continued to be postponed until he failed to show up at an April hearing. At the same time, his attorney Chris Bennett didn't renew her contract with the county, so he was left with no defense lawyer.
While he was awaiting trial for residential burglary, he allegedly returned in February 2023 to the same woman's home, forced his way in and raped her, according to court documents. New charges were filed in March, and he was arrested again in late April.
This time Superior Court Judge David Petersen set the bail in both the original burglary case and the new rape case at $250,000.
Attorney Tim Dickerson was appointed for the rape case, but no one has been reassigned for the original burglary charge.
This week, Ruff decided her only option was to eliminate his bail on that charge to buy another month's time to get him a defense attorney. He remains in jail on the $250,000 bail for the rape charge.
In Painter's case, Pasco officers received a report of him driving a stolen Mazda on March 27. Officers found the stolen car in a church parking lot and saw Painter entering a nearby trailer where he was arrested.
Witnesses told police they had previously seen him driving the stolen car, according to court documents.
Ruff set his bail at the time at $10,000, and he's been in the Franklin County jail since then.
His right to a speedy trial was on the verge of expiring when Ruff eliminated the bail and released him on his own recognizance, giving them another 30 days to find him an attorney.
