Over 100 Boston criminal cases tossed out as defense lawyer work stoppage drags on
An accused cocaine trafficker, a man charged with beating a pregnant woman and a woman who had been on the Boston Police Department's most wanted list were among the more than 100 defendants whose charges were dismissed Tuesday because there were no public defenders to represent them.
The cases were the first to go up in smoke since private attorneys, in search of a pay increase from the state, began declining to take new cases of people who cannot afford a lawyer. Without attorneys to represent those indigent defendants, judges are forced to dismiss some cases and release other suspects held on serious charges.
"Today is quite an unprecedented tragedy, I believe, to our victims in the commonwealth and to the community with these cases being dismissed," Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Amelia Singh told a Boston courtroom after the day's proceedings.
The cases dismissed also included stabbings, an attempt by a woman to burn a family member, and attacks on female victims in the middle of the street in front of witnesses, said Marc Tohme, chief of district and municipal courts for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
"We have great concerns for public safety, given some of the cases being dismissed," he said.
Prosecutors and staff for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defender agency, scrambled Tuesday morning to find lawyers willing to take on new indigent clients before their cases could be dismissed.
In only a handful of cases were they successful.
Repeatedly, Tohme urged Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons, the chief justice of the Boston Municipal Courts, to hold off dismissing the cases to allow more time to find lawyers who might take the cases.
But when attorneys could not be found, Lyons ruled the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, had made a "good faith" efforts to connect defendants with representation.
The vast majority of the roughly 130 defendants — whose hearings Tuesday came after they had been without counsel for 45 days — saw their cases tossed out.
One by one, court staff read down the list of defendants facing a variety of charges. Numerous defendants faced counts of drug possession or distribution, assault and battery and various forms of theft.
The private defense attorneys, known as bar advocates, represent about 80% of criminal defendants in Massachusetts who can't afford legal representation. Frustrated by a pay rate they say remains far too low, the attorneys have largely refused to take new cases since May.
"We are living through an unprecedented moment in the criminal legal system in Massachusetts," CPCS Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti said in an emailed statement after the hearings. "Our clients, overwhelmingly low-income individuals, many of whom are Black and Brown, are being denied the most basic constitutional protection: the right to counsel. Our staff is working tirelessly, but the system is stretched beyond its limits, and it is having a deep impact on all of us and those we represent."
The hearings occurred under the state's Lavallee protocol, a system invoked in recent weeks to address the shortage of public defenders.
As of last week, more than 50 defendants who had been held because of their danger to the community were granted Lavallee hearings after they could not be assigned attorneys within seven days in custody. Nearly half were released.
Tuesday's hearings addressed cases where defendants out on bail had gone 45 days without legal representation. Their charges must be dismissed under the Lavallee protocols.
One of the defendants had been listed in May on the Boston Police Department's most wanted list. She was charged with overnight breaking and entering — a felony — as well as larceny. Both charges were dismissed.
In another case, a man named Charles Arvin was charged in Dorchester with a domestic assault and battery in which prosecutors said he punched a pregnant woman in the stomach, Tohme said.
Arvin had already been released without bail when there were no attorneys available to take his case. Again unable to find him legal counsel on Tuesday, Lyons was forced to dismiss his charges.
Another woman was accused of severely burning her nephew using a bottle of cologne and a lighter.
It was one of multiple instances of a defendant facing serious violent charges in which Tohme said he was "desperately" asking CPCS to make every effort to find a public defender.
No lawyers were available to take the case, though, and the charges were dismissed.
Rebecca Jacobstein, an attorney for the committee, said the organization had already gone to tremendous lengths to find lawyers willing to take new clients. As required, it had prioritized assigning lawyers with cases where they were most urgently needed or where public safety could be at risk if the defendant went free.
The district attorney's office maintained that though it had assisted CPCS in tracking down lawyers for indigent defendants, that was outside its responsibilities. Prosecutors could not prioritize finding representation for one defendant over another, assistant district attorney Elisabeth Martino said.
A small number of defendants were able to locate private counsel or public defenders and were no longer eligible to have their cases dismissed.
As the public defender work stoppage stretches on, more serious cases will reach the 45-day mark where they must be dismissed, Martino said.
Hundreds of cases could ultimately be dismissed. More than 200 defendants are scheduled for Lavallee hearings in Boston Municipal Court on Aug. 5.
Hearings have not yet been scheduled in Suffolk and Middlesex courts, the two counties where the Lavallee protocols have been invoked. But court officials said some 450 defendants may see their cases considered under the process.
More Lavallee hearings are scheduled for defendants in custody Wednesday morning in Boston Municipal Court. Hearings for the district courts in Suffolk and Middlesex counties will be held Thursday morning.
By law, bar advocates make between $65 and $120 an hour in Massachusetts, depending on the type of case. In New Hampshire, bar advocates make $125 an hour. They make $112 per hour in Rhode Island and $150 per hour in Maine.
More public safety stories
Read the original article on MassLive .
