ACLU of Washington sues Yakima County to release inmates who can’t get public defenders

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is suing Yakima County on behalf of criminal defendants who have been unable to get a public defender.

In the suit filed Monday in Kittitas County Superior Court, the ACLU is demanding that defendants who have had to wait more than a week to have a defense attorney assigned to them be released, citing a violation of constitutional guarantees to a speedy trial and to have an attorney represent them.

Named in the lawsuit are the Yakima County Department of Corrections and its director, Jeremy Welch; Yakima County Superior Court and Presiding Judge Richard Bartheld; Yakima County Commissioners Kyle Curtis, LaDon Linde and Amanda McKinney; the Yakima County Department of Assigned Counsel and its director, Paul Kelley.

“This is about fairness — everyone deserves and has a right to an attorney, and that’s not happening now for defendants in Yakima County,” David Montes, an ACLU staff attorney, was quoted as saying in an ACLU news release. “They don’t have an opportunity to ask to be released. They don’t have an opportunity for an attorney to move their case forward.

“We have protections in place to ensure there isn’t government abuse of power and that people are treated fairly, and right now, those protections don’t exist for a whole class of people in Yakima County.”

Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic said he had just received the suit and is evaluating it.

“It is in the infancy stage of evaluation,” Brusic said. He declined further comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Since September 2022, the Department of Assigned Counsel, which oversees the county’s public defenders, has not been able to immediately appoint attorneys to represent indigent defendants, whom Kelley said in an earlier interview represent a majority of those charged in Superior Court.

The problem stems from a shortage of qualified attorneys combined with court-mandated caseload limits on public defenders. The attorneys are limited to 150 cases a year, with greater weight given to murder charges and other serious felonies.

And public defenders handling felony cases must meet certain standards to ensure that defendants are effectively represented in court.

Yakima County has attempted to bring the DAC back to full staffing by increasing salaries for both public defenders and prosecutors, as well as offering signing bonuses.

Typically, when a defendant is arraigned two weeks after their first court appearance, a speedy trial countdown begins, with prosecutors having 60 days to bring a defendant sitting in jail to trial, and 90 days for those who are out on bail or pretrial release.

But with delays as long as two months, Bartheld issued an order in August that the speedy-trial clock will be paused until an attorney is appointed for defendants who are not in custody.

The DAC has also placed a priority on appointing attorneys for those who are in jail and have a shorter speedy-trial time period.

The five plaintiffs in the case have either not had an attorney appointed to their case or are awaiting a new attorney after their previous public defender left.

“While waiting for an attorney to be assigned, thee individuals are required to repeatedly come to court for attorney status hearings, frequently waiting hours for a hearing where they are again told that no attorneys are available,” the suit states.

And without attorneys, the defendants cannot argue for bail reduction or challenge revocation of bail or court-supervised release.

The suit seeks to have the inmates, and others similarly situated, to be released if they cannot be provided counsel in a timely manner.