SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- San Francisco’s Public Defender announced Friday that his office will be unavailable to represent any new homicide cases due to a lack of staffing after city supervisors denied his request to hire two more paralegals to help lighten the load on his already over-burdened staff.
In a heated meeting, tensions swelled as Public Defender Jeff Adachi explained his grim situation to the city supervisors’ finance committee.
“Currently, we are handling all cases assigned to us—we can no longer do that,” said Adachi.
KCBS’ Barbara Taylor reports
Adachi says his office may not be able to represent as many as seven homicide cases, including the most high profile case of last year involving Edwin Ramos, an alleged gang member who is accused of murdering Antonio Bologna and his two sons in what police are calling a case of mistaken gang identity.
Supervisor Avalos, whose district was the site of the triple murder, said that he empathizes with Adachi’s problems but said that the cash-strapped city will be unable to fulfill the defender’s request to hire more staff members.
“All around our city is forced to do more with less,” said Avalos. “We had the President of the United States sworn in [last Tuesday and he] talked about sacrifice [and] I think that’s the name of the game.”
However the supervisor’s response did not sit well with Adachi who told the board that his office would not compromise their commitment to the people of San Francisco.
“I’m not in the business of giving incompetent representation to poor people, and I don’t think that’s what President Obama said.”
Adachi left the meeting empty handed and says he will now make good on his threat to decline any new cases which will force the city to hire private counsel and could cost even more money in the long run.
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