July 16, 2023 Dena Jensen

In a Bellingham Herald article back in mid-May this year, Denver Pratt had reported on the local shortage of defense lawyers during that timing when Whatcom County was waiting for a public defender to be named.

The Bellingham Herald reported that at that time, 43 people were unrepresented, 26 had cases in District Court, 12 were charged with felonies in Superior Court, and five were facing charges in juvenile court.

The article also indicated that the shortage of public defense attorneys was an issue that has been brewing over the last several years.

Here is a quote from the article by Starck Follis, Director of the Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office:

“I don’t know that it’s anybody’s fault, but the question is, ‘What do we do with these people? Do we let them out of jail or dismiss their cases? On some level, they’re being deprived of pretty fundamental rights and we’ve got to find a solution to this problem,’ Follis said. ‘It’s very troubling, especially for those in custody.’”

Pratt wrote a follow-up to her May 15, 2023 article early this month which noted:

“Since that time, the county has hired an in-house conflict attorney, the public defender’s office has added to its staff and judges have begun talking about the rare step of assigning private attorneys to handle cases. 

“As of Thursday, July 6, there were still eight people waiting for an attorney to be found for them, according to Whatcom County Superior Court Administrator Dave Reynolds.”

Both of these articles have many important details that paint a grim picture of how far off the rails even the existing provisions for justice are in Whatcom County but they also seemed to chart some progress being made.

However, I was able to find some more illumination on this urgent and disturbing state of affairs during a segment of the July 6, 2023 Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) Steering Committee meeting.

Near the end of the meeting, Raylene King, a Blaine Court Administrator and Whatcom County Small Cities Municipal Court representative on the IPRTF checked in with fellow Task Force member Maia Vanyo, Chief Deputy of the Whatcom County Public Defender Office, to see if there might be a future agenda item for providing an update on the defense attorney shortage.

The response from Vanyo did not present much hope that the serious issues with people charged with crimes in Whatcom County not being able to easily and promptly be assigned public defenders is going to be imminently resolved, despite the County’s recent hire of a public defense conflict attorney.

Here is a transcript of that portion of the meeting that starts at 00:38:54 in the meeting recording: 

Raylene King: “Actually on ‘Other Business’ I wanted to pick Maia’s brain on needs for public defense and counsel. I know that there’s been shortage of attorneys lately and if that’s maybe not have on a Task Force, but maybe on Legal and Justice in the future if things are getting better – what your thoughts are on what we can do to help that, because that’ll help our incarceration.’

Maia Vanyo: “That situation is pretty rough at the moment. We sent – we got to capacity in our office at the end of June and had to send cases to assigned counsel. They still had cases from when we overflowed in May that hadn’t gotten attorneys, class A felonies, and I just took a few of those back at the beginning of July because we’re at the beginning of the month and I can kind of reload people. But that’s like, that’ll limit – you know that’s going to effect then, the end of this month.

“And so we’re sort of getting into this – not a great situation. And I imagine that Dave Reynolds [Whatcom County Superior Court Administrator] is having difficulty finding counsel to take all of the cases. Even though Melissa Stone came on [hired in June this year by Whatcom County’s Office of Assigned Counsel as a public defense conflict attorney], I mean, she has to work within the standards of indigent defense, as well. So, I – you know, like, I don’t know where her numbers are at.

“And she’s taking cases in Juvenile District and Superior Court. And she’s not qualified to take B-Violent or A-Felonies so she’s just – anyway, part of this problem is that we lost two attorneys, right? And so one of them is gone and I have reassigned all of her cases. So those are all taken care of.

“But one of those attorneys isn’t – is working through the end of July, but I can’t assign him new cases because he still has 58 cases that he’s holding at this moment that I’m hoping he can resolve some number of. But whatever he doesn’t resolve I’m going to have to reassign. So they get all double-counted. And although I have an attorney starting to take – to fill in – oh boy, it’s just – I don’t have enough places to put cases. It’s not good.

“And I know that the prosecutors are asking – will be asking, I understand – I don’t think I’m announcing it now. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t make an announcement out of turn; they’re not here.

“I know that we will be asking for some supplemental mid-term budget adjustment to hire more attorneys, is my expectation. Starck [Follis, Director of the Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office] and Tom and I are discussing what that would be. And to some extent it would need to be responsive to requests made by other departments, because if any – as we know when you have more deputies, more cases, you know, when you have more prosecutors, things move faster, we have to keep up.

“So that’s all happening and it’s – Starck’s on vacation till July 17th, and then he’s in trial that week. I think it would be – I mean, I don’t know what kind of – I don’t think anyone here is opposed to us having enough staff to take on these cases. But the time – you know, we’ve got – I don’t know. I mean, Starck’s just not in a position, really, to make a report time-wise, I don’t think. I could try to do that if you wanted to put it on the agenda, I can do that. I mean, sorry, I’m just trying to everyday make things fit.”

“I mean, I feel like the people who make the decisions about funding are aware of what’s going on. And we’re communicating with them. We’re meeting with Tyler very soon, in the next two week – it’s coming up in July when Starck’s back we’re meeting with the Executive’s Office to talk about it.”

Raylene King: “So Maia, I’m thinking maybe if we started with just the August Legal and Justice, and explained the spring court case loads – what’s required, what’s not required, because I think a lot of people don’t know those requirements – how many cases you guys can take. And then, what the shortage is, and then, how, when you’re transferring cases from one attorney to a new attorney, how the process starts over, and how it delays people that are currently incarcerated.

“I mean, if we can just start with the baseline and then we can maybe go from just the subcommittee and bring it as a report to the regular committee. Because I think the general public is starting to watch our meetings more than they were in the past and they need to know where the funding is going and why we need it. I mean, that’s just a thought.”

Here is a link to a webpage with details about the date and time of the August 2023 IPRTF Legal and Justice Systems Committee meeting: https://wa-whatcomcounty.civicplus.com/Calendar.aspx?EID=7879&month=8&year=2023&day=8&calType=0