Cole County judges Monday discussed a plan to help reduce the wait list for people who need public defenders to represent them in court hearings.
At the judges' annual end-of-year meeting, Judge Dan Green said he had identified 40 attorneys who had regularly practiced in front of all the judges in the courthouse and he, along with Judge Jon Beetem, had talked with them about working on cases on the wait list.
"I've talked to several members of the local bar, and while nobody seemed overly excited about it, everybody seems willing to participate," Green said.
There are approximately 220 cases on the wait list right now involving 160 people, Green said.
"They'll be involved with mostly misdemeanors and simple felony cases," he added. "They're not going to be assigned to someone who has multiple cases against them."
Judge Pat Joyce said the focus should be on cases where the charges are either stealing or driving while revoked, as she said she's seen more of those come through the system recently. She hopes cases can get done in 90 days, since most cases end up in a plea bargain.
"Judge (Cotton) Walker will pick the cases," Beetem said. "It's the right moving step because they can't do anything with their case until they have a lawyer."
Beetem noted there are few people in custody who don't have a lawyer.
"When the state public defender heard about this project, they said they thought they could find us some more money to hire outside attorneys to take criminal cases to reduce the wait list," Beetem said.
The Cole County Commission approved an agreement with the state public defender to do this last March. Despite restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the judges said they saw a reduction in the wait list. Heading into this year, the wait list had more than 300 cases.
"We think this project will help take away more than 40 cases," Beetem said. "The state public defender has extra money to help pay people to defend these cases."