WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. — The Washington County district attorney's office announced the results of a specialized court program dubbed "Wingspan III," designed to address the criminal defense attorney shortage crisis on Friday.
Justice has been moving slowly in a lot of spots across the state of Oregon due to a chronic lack of public defenders. Through a streamlined effort — prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges got through more than 100 criminal cases in a 6-week time span in February and March.
This crisis is nothing new, but District Attorney Kevin Barton told KGW that over the past couple of years, at least in Washington County, it's gotten worse. This program, modeled after a couple specialized court programs to address pandemic related backlogs, helped many finally get their day in court.
"If we don't — as a system — have the ability to ensure that people accused of crimes have attorneys, then that case can't progress forward," said Barton.
He explained this creates a backlog, further straining an already strained system. According to state data, nearly 150 defendants in the county are currently without court-appointed counsel.
"It's incredibly frustrating because you know that there's only so much the district attorney can do, and the levers I can pull, and the buttons I can push are really focused on charging someone with a crime or not charging, making a plea offer or not making an offer, going to trial or not going to trial," he said. "In terms of getting a lawyer for the person who's accused of a crime, that's not something the DA has any control over. But if that person doesn't have a lawyer, we can't even get to step one."
To address the public defender crisis in the county, the DA's office teamed up with defense attorneys and the Washington County Circuit Court, together launching the program to tackle the backlog — using lots of resources, in a short time span.
Those previously unrepresented for lower level felonies and misdemeanors got a defense lawyer, went over their cases, and had the opportunity to resolve them — more often than not by taking a plea deal.
Barton said about 70% of defendants who appeared in court as part of the program had their cases resolved.
"We basically accelerated what was very likely to happen in many of these cases. By doing that, we're reducing the number of defendants who are without a lawyer, and we're freeing up resources so that people who are sitting in jail, who don't have lawyers, or other defendants who don't have lawyers, [can] get their cases dealt with," said Barton.
Despite the success of the program, the DA said he doesn't plan to continue it — since it addresses a small part, of a larger problem.
"While we did reduce the number of unrepresented defendants, what we noticed is it started to creep back up again. What we're realizing is we can't keep doing this — that we need to treat the disease, not the symptoms."