The Number of People Without Court-Appointed Attorneys in Multnomah County Is Growing

Multnomah County’s public defender shortage is only getting more acute, new data shows.

Today, 1,063 people in Multnomah County who were eligible to be represented by a court-appointed attorney did not have one, according to state data. That’s the highest number recorded in the last month, since the Oregon Judicial Department began publishing the data on a new dashboard.

The statewide problem is having ripple effects across the criminal justice system, and is creating headaches for Portland’s prosecutors as they watch defendants walk free when a court is unable to appoint an attorney.

In an interview for this week’s cover story on criminal activity around Dawson Park, deputy district attorney Eric Palmer cited two recent cases where charges were dropped because no defense attorney was available.

In one, a woman accused a man of shoving her head into a doorframe after soliciting sex acts at the Dawson Park bus stop. In another, officers patrolling the neighborhood found a loaded Glock 9 mm pistol in a car owned by a man with a felony conviction.

The state is currently facing a class action lawsuit brought by four criminal defendants who had been denied a court-appointed attorney. According to the May lawsuit, 500 criminal defendants statewide who were waiting to be assigned an attorney.

When asked for an updated count in August, the state agency responsible for public defenders, the Office of Public Defense Services, forwarded WW an email with a list of 189 names. Two weeks later, when asked for updated data, the agency did not provide a list, citing privacy issues.

Instead, its general counsel, Eric J. Deitrick, pointed WW to a new dashboard, which is managed by the Oregon Judicial Department.

The dashboard currently counts 1,458 unrepresented people, although that number includes those with active warrants, probation violations, and non-criminal cases.

Oregon Chief Justice Martha L. Walters recently dissolved the commission that oversees the state’s Office of Public Defense Services after it failed to fire the agency’s director, who Walters had clashed with. The new commissioners named by Walters completed the job.

“[The] issue needs to remain front and center as we continue to work on systemic issues within our current public defense system,” Walters said.

The new commission meets tomorrow with plans to discuss proposals from the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association to address what the group calls an “unprecedented crisis.”