Delaware County Council approves $150,000 for public defender costs amid surge in trials and appeals

The Delaware County Council on Tuesday approved a $150,000 appropriation request from the Public Defender’s Office to cover transcript fees, attorney stipends and professional services tied to outside counsel and psychological evaluations.

Shelley Harvey, of the Delaware County Public Defender’s Office, told the council the office has paid out unusually high costs this year because “we've had 5 of the major felony jury trials.” Harvey said the appropriation request included $25,001.86 for transcripts, $50,003.10 for attorney fees and $75,000 for professional services, for a $150,000 total.

The appropriation passed on a roll-call vote with Council Members Flanagan, Kants, Mockel, Bookout, Piper and Whitehead voting yes and Council Member Hughes voting no.

Why this matters: The Public Defender’s Office said higher courtroom activity, appeals and an increased need for psych evaluations are the main drivers of the extra expense. Harvey said the office has paid approximately $41,000 on appeals so far and that transcript costs and contract counsel have spiked because of multiple trials and appeals carried over from 2024 into 2025.

Harvey also described the office’s use of outside contract counsel when in-house attorneys reach mandated case caps and when conflicts require outside appointments. She named recent hires — Brandon Murphy and Caleb Maury — and said those new staff hires may reduce future contract-counsel spending once they are fully qualified for higher-level cases.

Council discussion touched on alternatives to repeated appropriations, including hiring an additional public defender to reduce contract spending. Harvey said a permanent “floater” public defender might not fully solve the problem because specialized qualifications and court scheduling make such roles difficult to staff and deploy across multiple courtrooms. She noted the office is including higher anticipated costs in its 2026 budget submission.

Council and staff also discussed ways to shift certain payments; Court Administrator Emily Anderson said some jury-related payouts can be drawn from the separate jury fee fund to offset county general fund impact. Anderson said she and staff will start drawing selected jury trial payouts from that fund to help reduce the immediate pressure on county general funds.

The council did not change any compensation policies; it approved the appropriation only. Council members asked staff to provide documentation of the public defender pay policy Harvey referenced — a policy she attributed to the State Public Defender Commission — so the council can review the basis for attorney stipends paid for trial and appellate work.

Looking ahead: Harvey said she has included projected transcript, attorney fee and professional service amounts in next year’s budget to reduce the need for midyear appropriations, but she cautioned trial volume is unpredictable and that recent years have been unusually active.