Sorry, There's No Lawyer For You, But We're Working On It, Really. (Article)

Sorry, There’s No Lawyer For You, But We’re Working On It, Really.

Posted by Ed Folsom, September 24, 2024.

From a story in today’s Portland Press Herald, headlined “Waterville man pleads not guilty In February Shooting death”:

“District Court Judge Heather Seasonwein, who presided at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta on Monday afternoon, denied bail, but said it would be reviewed at another hearing. Seasonwein said a defense lawyer is not now available to represent a defendant in a murder case.

‘Unfortunately, we do not have anyone that can take murder cases at this time,’ Seasonwein said. ‘However, we are actively looking, and will try to get you access to a lawyer.’”

The Defendant in the proceedings, Tyler Quirion, was arraigned on charges of murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person related to the February 19, 2024 shooting death of Justin Iraola, in Waterville. Quirion was represented during the proceedings by attorney William Baghdoyan. Baghdoyan acted in the limited role of lawyer of the day, assisting defendants who were in custody and who appeared before the judge on Monday afternoon.

According to the news account, “Baghdoyan said he had only received [Quirion’s] indictment two minutes before Monday’s court hearing.” That means Baghdoyan had less time than that to introduce Quirion to the charges against him — Good thing it was no big deal.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin moved for a Harnish hearing. At the Harnish hearing, Quirion’s right to bail pending trial will be extinguished under the Maine Constitution if the State establishes “proof evident and presumption great” that he committed the alleged murder — a standard roughly equivalent to probable cause. Quirion is currently being held in jail without bail pending the Harnish hearing. For at least part of the time Quirion is held without bail he will not have a lawyer assigned to him.

I never thought I would see the day when a defendant arraigned on a murder charge in the State Capital of Augusta, the seat of Maine State Government, the site of the Capital Region Public Defender Office, and home of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, would be locked up without bail on a murder charge and told by the court, “Unfortunately, we do not have anyone that can take murder cases at this time. However, we are actively looking and will try to get you access to a lawyer.” But here we are.

Meanwhile, the ACLU’s lawsuit against the State of Maine and its Maine Commission on Public Defense Services (formerly the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services) awaits a December 2024 trial date.

Since the ACLU initially filed the suit, in March of 2022, alleging that court-appointed counsel in Maine were performing inadequately, Maine has developed an acute problem of no available lawyers, at all, to assign to people who are entitled to assigned lawyers. We’ve got a Capital Region Public Defender Office and a raft of new standards and metrics overseen by the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services to ensure adequate performance of assigned counsel, but “we do not have anyone that can take [your] murder case[] at this time.”

However, you might be comforted to know, we’re looking and we’re trying.

Good job, State of Maine.