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KARK investigation prompts Senate Judiciary scrutiny of district-court public defender denials
Summary
A KARK investigative report and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee highlighted multiple district-court affidavits and local cases in which judges denied requests for public defenders, raising questions about statutory procedures, reporting gaps and pay and staffing for the public-defender system.
At a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, investigative reporter Mitch McCoy told lawmakers his team spent months documenting cases in which people seeking court-appointed counsel were denied in some district courts, and he provided broadcast material and court records to the committee.
"For the last 4 months, I've been investigating and reporting on public defender issues across our state," McCoy told the committee as he summarized his KARK reporting and asked the panel to view excerpts of his broadcast. He said his team found court records indicating the public defender handled only 48 district-court cases over nine years in Polk County, a number he described as unusually low for a court of that size.
McCoy cited individual examples his team reviewed, including an affidavit showing a defendant with limited cash and modest monthly expenses who was denied counsel, and the case of Kelly Young Franklin, a teacher who told McCoy she was receiving government assistance at…
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