Orange County Public Defender

For 18 months, Raymond Ronald Mendez was a model employee for the Orange County public defender's office, an affable co-worker and crisp translator who interviewed Spanish-speaking defendants after their arrests. But the Santa Ana native has now been exposed as a man leading a second life--that of "Champ" Mendez, a player in the sprawling La Eme prison gang. He was convicted in May as a conspirator to murder and drug trafficking.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors ended an eight-month search for the county's next public defender Wednesday by promoting a veteran from department ranks. Debbie Kwast, who joined the public defender's office out of law school 25 years ago, has served as interim public defender since January, at a salary of $168,000 a year, which will now be renegotiated. She will oversee nearly 200 attorneys and a budget of $44 million.

The Orange County public defender's office has saved nearly $5 million since the county declared bankruptcy in December, but the changes have brought damaging effects that are making caseloads "nearly unmanageable," officials said Friday. "We're pretty much at the end of our rope," Chief Deputy Public Defender Carl C. Holmes said. "We've done all we can do. . . . We've got to have some relief. We've got to be able to put some replacements in here or we're not going to make it."

A man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for an Orange County murder he probably did not commit has set a price on his lost freedom: $10 million. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, DeWayne McKinney said his wrongful conviction was the fault of Orange police, who arrested him, and the Orange County public defender's office, which represented him at his trial.

A man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for an Orange County murder he probably did not commit has set a price on his lost freedom: $10 million. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, DeWayne McKinney said his wrongful conviction was the fault of Orange police, who arrested him, and the Orange County public defender's office, which represented him at his trial.

Even as the cash-strapped county began efforts to slash funds spent on outside attorneys for indigent defendants, four new private lawyers were hired Tuesday to represent a handful of criminal defendants when the Orange County public defender's office could not handle them. But officials said the number of cases assigned to private attorneys is still expected to be limited to about 100 a year under a new cost-cutting program prompted by the county's bankruptcy.

There's nothing like the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history to get government moving in a hurry. No one knows that better than Deputy Public Defender Brian Ducker. For nearly a decade, Orange County considered creating a second, smaller branch of the Orange County public defender's office to save money by handling cases normally assigned to outside private attorneys.

The Orange County public defender's office has asked the state attorney general to take charge of an investigation into allegations of illegal gambling activities by employees of the office, officials confirmed Friday. Because the public defenders are the regular courtroom adversaries of prosecutors from the Orange County district attorney's office, Public Defender Carl Holmes believes that local prosecutors have a conflict of interest that should disqualify them from pursuing the investigation.

Last November, Jose John Lopez found himself in Municipal Court in Santa Ana, Division 203, facing three misdemeanor charges of abusing his live-in girlfriend. Lopez, 22, of Orange, who is poor and was unemployed at the time, said he watched, bewildered, as Municipal Judge Claude E. Whitney worked his way through a stack of case files, devoting less than a minute to each defendant. It seemed like everyone was being shipped off to jail, Lopez recalled.

When attorney Jerome Goldfein took a contract to represent indigent clients in cases where the Orange County public defender's office had a conflict of interest, his logic was simple: Even though the county paid less than private defense work, Goldfein reasoned, he could count on the income. Until now.

As cutting-edge DNA technology changes the quest for justice in California and across the nation, two traditional legal enemies, Orange County's public defender and district attorney, are developing a plan to jointly investigate possible wrongful convictions. Details about the unusual union are still being worked out, but officials hope it will result in a team effort to examine new evidence and provide DNA tests for inmates whose guilt has come under question.

As cutting-edge DNA technology changes the quest for justice in California and across the nation, two traditional legal enemies--Orange County's public defender and district attorney--are developing a plan to work together to investigate possible wrongful convictions. Details about the unusual union are still being worked out, but officials hope it will result in a team effort to examine new evidence and provide DNA tests for inmates whose guilt has come under question.

For 18 months, Raymond Ronald Mendez was a model employee for the Orange County public defender's office, an affable co-worker and crisp translator who interviewed Spanish-speaking defendants after their arrests. But the Santa Ana native has now been exposed as a man leading a second life--that of "Champ" Mendez, a player in the sprawling La Eme prison gang. He was convicted in May as a conspirator to murder and drug trafficking.

An Orange County deputy district attorney under investigation for alleged illegal office gambling has resigned, his supervisor said Wednesday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Daryl Dworakowski submitted his resignation Friday as his former colleagues continued an internal probe into allegations that Dworakowski took part in a gambling ring run out of the county public defender's office, officials said. Maurice L.

The Orange County public defender's office has asked the state attorney general to take charge of an investigation into allegations of illegal gambling activities by employees of the office, officials confirmed Friday. Because the public defenders are the regular courtroom adversaries of prosecutors from the Orange County district attorney's office, Public Defender Carl Holmes believes that local prosecutors have a conflict of interest that should disqualify them from pursuing the investigation.

The county's top public defender said Wednesday that he is cooperating with prosecutors investigating alleged illegal gambling activities in his office but discounted the likelihood that the probe would uncover any serious wrongdoing. "Like at many business and workplaces, there is apparent evidence of people placing bets in football pools," Public Defender Carl Holmes said. "We are dealing with those issues."

As cutting-edge DNA technology changes the quest for justice in California and across the nation, two traditional legal enemies, Orange County's public defender and district attorney, are developing a plan to jointly investigate possible wrongful convictions. Details about the unusual union are still being worked out, but officials hope it will result in a team effort to examine new evidence and provide DNA tests for inmates whose guilt has come under question.

Worried that legal services for the poor might suffer, directors of the Orange County Bar Assn. strongly oppose a tentative plan by the Board of Supervisors to farm out some of the Orange County public defender's caseload to the lowest bidder. Late Wednesday night, the board of the 6,000-member organization passed a formal resolution against Supervisor Roger R.

Orange County officials have worried for years about the increasing cost of providing lawyers for defendants too poor to hire their own. Matters have gotten worse since the bankruptcy, causing justified concern. It seems clear that private attorneys will have to represent some indigent defendants. About two-thirds of those charged with crimes in Orange County cannot pay for their own lawyer.

Orange County judges and attorneys squared off Friday over a legislative bill that would privatize the work of the public defender's office, highlighting bitter divisions over the use of private attorneys to defend the poor. In one exchange, Judge Pamela L. Iles of Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel said she was portrayed as a liar by private attorney Charles T. Spagnola, and she responded by calling him a "money-grubbing" lawyer.