A public defender in Portage County, OH was sent to prison yesterday for failing to provide adequate representation in a misdemeanor case.
He got the case the day before and sought more time from the judge. The judge gave him 2.5 hours, and then cited him for contempt when he was not able to present a defense following the allotted time. I don't know the facts of the case, but there are more than a few misdemeanors that require more than 2.5 hours to prepare.
Consider this: public defenders often handle 10-15 cases at a time or more (a friend of mine in Family Court in NYC handled over 100 at a time). That means those 2.5 hours may have been cut up by, among other things, another hearing.
So now counsel will need counsel for his contempt hearing scheduled for Friday. I know he can't afford a lawyer on his salary. Perhaps he should call a public defender today, so that person has adequate time to prepare.
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