When JaxPoliticsOnline.com began last November, one of the hottest topics was newly-elected Public Defender Matt Shirk.  While I will confess ignorance as to the inner workings of the Public Defenders Office, it was something that one of our former contributors was quite passionate about.  In fact, his articles garnered statewide, indeed national, attention among numerous criminal defense blogs.

Now, one of the stories that was discussed here in the past has finally come to a resolution.  Howard Coker, Matt Shirk's attorney, announced yesterday that Shirk was settling with a former client, Eric Edwards.  Shirk had agreed to defend Edwards on drug and gun charges two weeks after winning election last November.  Edwards' parents claimed that, after taking $3,750, Shirk performed minimal work on the case before closing his practice to become Public Defender.  The family sued and Shirk settled---for $13,450.

The full article can be read in the Times-Union.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall. This evening, from 5-7 p.m. at the Ivy Ultra Bar in downtown Jacksonville, The Law Office of Duke Fagan is sponsoring a meet and greet for the lawyers on staff at both the State Attorney’s and the Public Defender’s office. And it’s OPEN BAR! WOOOOOO!

A press release reads:

"The new year has brought many changes. The Nation has a new President and the Fourth Judicial Circuit has a new State Attorney and a new Public Defender. Along with the executive changes in both offices there has been a consequent change in legal staff. There are new faces in old position and “old” faces in new positions. Thus, it is a good time to bring together both sides of the government funded criminal justice bar to meet the new faces and to renew relationships with the “old” faces.

The Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida has always been known for professionalism and collegiality among the members of its bar. In furtherance of that spirit, The Law Office of Duke Fagan is sponsoring a social hour for the Public Defenders and the State Attorneys of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. An open bar, hors d’oeuvres, and live music will be provided.

This event is by invitation only … All lawyers employed in the Office of the State Attorney and in the Office of the Public  Defender for the Fourth Judicial Circuit have been invited. "

I love how they put “old” in quotes in the first paragraph, like people might get confused and think they were talking about the elderly. And, really, considering what good friends Angela Corey and Matt Shirk are, we’re relatively sure the two offices will get along just fine sans cocktail hour. [FLOG]

This is worse (or better, depending on your perspective) than a soap opera.

"It says this is all one community" said Judge Day.  

I'm sorry to break the bad news to his Honor, but no....that's not what it says.  It takes more than a swearing in ceremony to make a community.  What it really says is the "queen" has started her reign over some grim-faced SAO employees, who have now had her swearing in ceremony crammed down their throats.   

But even over the waves of nausea emerged a worse feeling when I read in that same news article that the new Public Defender, Matt Shirk, had accompanied the new State Attorney on her road tour.  Shirk was sworn in later in the afternoon and then went to his FOP-sponsored soiree. 

What's wrong with that picture?

Jaxpolitics  began on November 1st, as a site to capture our observations and musings on state and local politics.  In the short time since we began, site views have increased from just over 1,000 views for the month of November to over 4,000 views so far this December (those numbers do not include views by the authors of the site).  That's quite a feat considering we're not linked to the Times Union, nor are we linked to Sayfie Review  (although, in all honesty, we would like to be....lol).

Definitely, the top story on Jaxpolitics since the inception of our site has been the election of Matt Shirk as Public Defender - with all of our Shirk posts added together getting nearly 900 views in the month of December alone.  Our November 27th post on considering changing Florida's system of electing the public defender and state attorney, received over 250 views and is the most viewed post for Jaxpolitics.    Our next highest views went to our Mayport Cruise Terminal and Waste Management no bid contract posts.

On behalf of Jaxpolitics, we want to thank you for visiting our site and for providing comments and insight.  It's been a great ride so far, and we hope it continues.  All of us here at Jaxpolitics wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.

Here's the article:

WEB-ONLY

Public defender, state attorney firings roil the ranks in Florida

Julie Kay / Staff reporter

December 5, 2008

MIAMI — Attorneys who were fired en masse by a newly elected public defender and state attorney in Jacksonville, Fla., are considering legal action.

Meanwhile, the incident is igniting controversy and debates about whether employees of these offices should be civil service employees and whether the position of public defender and state attorney should be appointed rather than elected.

The Fourth Circuit in Florida, which includes Jacksonville and the counties of Duval, Nassau and Clay, both elected a new state attorney and public defender in recent months. Public Defender Matt Shirk and State Attorney Angela Corey, both Republicans, defeated longtime employees of their respective offices.

Shirk, 35, worked as an assistant public defender in the office for five years and as a private attorney for four years. He defeated Bill White, a Democrat who worked in the public defender's office for 34 years. Shirk, who takes over the position on Jan. 6, fired 10 attorneys from the office on Nov. 21. He did so by sending an e-mail to White, telling him to fire the attorneys. In the e-mail, he spelled several of their names wrong.

A documentary's fallout?

The fired attorneys include Pat McGuinness and Ann Finnell, the team who won an acquittal for a murder suspect that became the subject of an Academy Award-winning documentary. Murder on a Sunday Morning told the story of how the two assistant public defenders convinced a jury that 15-year-old Brenton Butler did not kill a Georgia tourist and that his confession was coerced by Jacksonville police.

McGuinness, who served 31 years in the office, said he believes he was fired in retribution for the murder case, pointing to statements Shirk made during his campaign about supporting police officers as well as his backing by the police union. McGuinness, who is setting up a private law office with Finnell, said he and other fired attorneys are consulting attorneys about taking possible legal action against Shirk.

"I'll be consulting legal counsel about my options," he said. "He fired 10 of the most experienced attorneys in this office without taking a single personnel file or interviewing them."

Shirk did not return repeated calls and e-mails for comment.

Newly elected State Attorney Angela Corey took a different approach after she was elected. Like Shirk, Corey beat out the heir apparent to the office, 20-year veteran Jay Plotkin, on a tough-on-crime platform in a city with rising crime.

Corey asked all 400 employees in her office, including 80 attorneys, to resign. They were then allowed to reapply for their positions. Corey said she rehired 85% of the lawyers and kept 75% to 80% of the staffers. She insists that since the employees are not civil servants but appointed positions, she had every right to fire them.

"Their term of service ends with [the former state attorney]," she said. "It's the same with the Obama administration — Bush asked everyone at the White House to resign. Every single person knows they serve at the pleasure of the state attorney."

Corey said she consulted with many people before making the personnel changes and read state statutes carefully. She said she's heard that some employees she fired have sought legal representation. "That's fine," she said.

Mixed views

Views of whether Shirk and Corey were within their rights and whether the fired attorneys have legal cases is mixed.

In 2005, a federal jury in New Orleans decided that the city's first black district attorney discriminated against dozens of white employees by firing them days after taking office and replacing them with black employees. The plaintiffs were awarded $1.8 million in back pay and damages. DeCorte v. Jordan, No. 03-1239 (E.D. La.).

Michael Casey, a labor and employment lawyer in the Miami office of Epstein Becker & Green, said that the Jacksonville firings could be actionable. Even though the employees and lawyers are not civil servants, they are protected by "the same laws that prohibit discrimination and retaliation as everyone else.

"There could be age discrimination issues, or gender discrimination if most of those fired are women," he said. "Whether these result in potential claims, you'd have to look at the facts more closely."

Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Fla., said the firings could be actionable, but such cases are difficult to prove. "Florida is an at-will state, and employees can be fired at any time," he said. "However, if they feel their reputation or ability to get jobs in the future has been comprised, or they feel this was somehow done outside of normal channels, there could be a case. If they were recently told, 'go buy a house, your job is fine," they could have a case."

Recent employee evaluations could also factor into any case, Jarvis added. But Skip Babb, president of the Florida Public Defenders Association and a public defender in Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit, said it's not surprising or unusual that Corey and Shirk would want to appoint new people and defended their actions.

"When a newly elected official comes in, they want to bring in their own people," he said. "It's like Bill Parcells taking over the Miami Dolphins — he's going to bring in his own people in the top positions. It's very simple."

Shirk's comment on the firings?  None.  Despite repeated attempts by First Coast News to contact him, he has been unavailable for comment. Evidently he won't be explaining himself until after he takes office.  I guess he's too busy staring at his "pretty boy" self in his mirror to worry about anything else.

Next month, the state attorney will be Angela Corey, who owes her political life to the police union, raising questions about her objectivity.

Question:  Since Matt Shirk also owes his political life to the same police union, doesn't that raise the same questions about his objectivity?

And police officers would celebrate the election of a Public Defender why???

For those of you who haven't picked up this week's issue of Folio, you can read their piece on "pretty boy Matt" here.

*Hat tip to Tia Mitchell at the TU for posting the invite on her political blog.

New public defender is looking pound foolish

Next month, Matthew Shirk will take charge of the office that defends indigent people who are accused of crimes.

But so far, it doesn’t look like he’s on their side.

Shirk, a 35-year-old trial lawyer whose candidacy was buoyed by the blessing of the local police union, recently defeated longtime Public Defender Bill White.

White’s defeat stunned Northeast Florida’s legal community, leaving some to scour for an explanation in their party affiliations. Shirk’s being a Republican, they said, hoisted him over White, a Democrat, in conservative strongholds such as Clay and Nassau counties.

There may be something to that.

Duval County’s chart-topping murder rate has led to heightened fears of crime — fears which, in turn, have fed a grossly misguided perception that public defenders like White exist solely to help criminals walk, not to represent poor people who, if left to the mercy of an inexperienced or incompetent lawyer, might wind up wasting years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.

Those who voted for Shirk probably were comforted by his emphasis on fiscal responsibility rather than seeing to it that poor defendants, many of whom tend to be blamed for their own predicaments, receive adequate counsel.

But here’s the thing: Representing people who aren’t able to pay shouldn’t be a matter of politics or penny-pinching, but a matter of fairness and justice.

It doesn’t seem that Shirk has received that message.

He recently fired 10 of the area’s most experienced, most respected public defenders — his reasoning being, according to the Times-Union, that they cost too much.

We’re talking lawyers like Pat McGuiness and Ann Finnell. Lawyers who, back in 2000, saved 16-year-old Brenton Butler from going to prison by persuading a jury that when he confessed to killing a Georgia tourist earlier that year, he had done so under police coercion.

Their triumph in that case was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary titled Murder on a Sunday Morning. Legal heavy-hitters such as Stephen Bright, senior counsel for the nonprofit Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta and one of the nation’s top capital defense lawyers, often use it to teach law students the importance of having competent public defenders.

You’d think that Shirk would want to keep stars like McGuiness and Finnell so that the system doesn’t run the risk of wrongly sending an innocent person to prison or worse, to Death Row — and ultimately cost taxpayers millions in compensation if that person is later freed.

But he didn’t. And that’s scary.

If Shirk winds up replacing too many seasoned public defenders with cheaper, less-experienced ones, it won’t lead to more efficiency, Bright said.

“An experienced public defender can do much more work in much less time because they are experienced,” said Bright, whose center, among other things, helps Death Row inmates who had bad lawyers receive new trials.

“The ones who aren’t as experienced will take up a lot more time because they have a learning curve … the mistake here is that while these new ones are learning, someone could be wrongfully convicted ...

“What he’s [Shirk] doing is completely contrary to what public defender offices are supposed to do …”

Now none of this is to say that Shirk, who didn’t return my phone calls, will necessarily hire inadequate lawyers — although the fact that he has never defended a murder case would lead one to wonder where his qualifications rest in choosing lawyers to replace the stellar ones that he let go.

So now, we have a public defender who places greater weight on protecting people’s pocketbooks than doing what any person may someday need him to do for them, or for their children, or for someone else close to them: To provide solid legal representation to those who can’t afford it.

He’s proven it by purging the public defender’s office of top-notch lawyers that even he could learn something from; lawyers whose firings ought to embarrass and outrage this city.

Shirk may be on the side of economic efficiency. But right now, he has a ways to go to show that he’s on the side of poor defendants seeking justice.