Trumbull commissioners considering court-appointed defense attorneys

Staff report

WARREN

Trumbull County commissioners are thinking about switching to a different way of providing attorneys to poor defendants in the common pleas court while keeping the present Ohio Public Defender’s Office attorneys for cases in the municipal and family courts.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said Wednesday the judges at the common pleas court have made the commissioners aware of the judges’ concerns about the Trumbull County office of the Ohio Public Defender.

One issue is the public defender’s office has undergone several personnel changes, including the May 10 resignation of longtime public defender Atty. David Rouzzo.

Tim Young, the Ohio Public Defender, has been in communication with the commissioners’ office recently, including a Friday email to Atty. Jim Misocky, special projects administrator, proposing the county office eliminate two of its three full-time staff positions and reduce the number of attorneys that work under a contract.

It would enable the office to continue to handle the municipal and family courts, the memo says.

It would require the common pleas court judges to appoint private attorneys to handle criminal cases in common pleas court.

Rouzzo, meanwhile, who is now working as a private attorney, has proposed to the commissioners they create a county public defender’s office separate from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.

Rouzzo said this type of system is used in Portage and Ashtabula counties. Rouzzo said the system would cost less than the current system.

A key to making it effective would be to raise the wages of the staff attorneys to the $70,000- to $100,000-per-year range to attract talented and experienced attorneys. The attorney hired most recently to the Trumbull staff of the Ohio Public Defender makes about $56,000 annually, Rouzzo said.

A county public defender’s office would provide more consistency for defendants than having possibly dozens of court-appointed attorneys, Rouzzo added.