Public Defender

In an attempt to ease a backlog of court cases, the Woodbury Heights Council voted 4-2 on Wednesday to hire the township's first public defender. Council President Raymond Groller read a letter from David Keyko, the township judge, stating that a number of cases had been postponed in recent months because the township lacked a public defender. The municipality must provide an attorney if the defendant cannot afford one in cases involving more than $200, the letter said. "With the mandatory drunk-driving fines now so high, this involves a lot of cases," said Groller, a Republican.

Keir Bradford-Grey, the assistant federal public defender in Delaware, has been named Montgomery County's chief public defender. She assumes office April 1, replacing Stephen G. Heckman. Bradford-Grey has 13 years' experience as a public defender. She becomes the first African American woman to head a department in the county government. Josh Shapiro, chairman of the board of commissioners, said Bradford-Grey's "vision for the office and commitment to defending the indigent will help ensure that justice in Montgomery County is efficient and effective.

James Cheatham is a forgiving man, but after getting robbed of $60 on his birthday while trying to perform an act of kindness, he had little reservation about testifying in court. Plus, the 45-year-old father of three from Queen Village had a subpoena to show up in court about the September incident, and he knew he couldn't ignore it. Which is why Cheatham was confused when, he says, a public defender called him twice before a scheduled February trial to tell him he didn't have to worry about court - that there was nothing a judge would do if he didn't show.

New Jersey Public Defender Ivelisse "Ivy" Torres, 48, the highest-ranking Hispanic official in state government, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday. In July 1997, Ms. Torres, of Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, became the first career public defender to ascend to the top post in the state's Office of the Public Defender, which was created in 1967. "Ivy Torres was an extraordinary public servant and a special human being," said Gov. Whitman, who appointed her. "New Jersey is a better place because of her. " After beginning her career as a law guardian attorney and senior trial lawyer in the Public Defender Camden County Regional Office in 1979, she worked in the Union County regional office before transferring to the Ocean County office in 1987.

H. Ian Wachstein, the deputy public defender who has headed Camden County's public defender's office since 1972, will be demoted as part of statewide changes being made in the public defender's office by New Jersey Public Advocate Alfred A. Slocum. Beginning Jan. 1, Wachstein will no longer serve as the deputy public defender in the county. But Wachstein, 46, can continue to work in the New Jersey public defender system, although he said he had not talked fully about his options with Slocum.

Municipal court clerk Dorothy Still says she has never liked Maple Shade's hunt-and-peck system for assigning attorneys to poor clients. And she's relieved that a change may be coming. "I have to call a lawyer to do something he probably won't get paid for," Still said. "Nobody minds. Nobody gets angry. . . . But I feel embarrassed sometimes. " For about a decade Maple Shade has relied on lawyers already scheduled for court to represent indigent defendants - usually for free.

It comes down to this: Attorneys in the Camden Office of the Public Defender are being asked to take time off without pay, and clients are being asked to pay a new $50 administrative fee - all part of an effort throughout state government to avoid layoffs. The prospect of an unwanted, unpaid vacation seemed remote to many workers in July when Gov. Florio's office asked department heads to find ways to reduce their budgets. The legislature had approved a $253 million cut in state spending through layoffs, attrition, early retirement and furloughs.

With his full gray beard and pin-stripe suits, Owen W. Nash looked like a college professor, colleagues said. So people who visited his private law office in Media were sometimes puzzled by the pictures of fighter jets that Mr. Nash hung on his walls. Only a few people who took the time to stare at the pictures figured out who the clean-shaven man in the flight suits was. Mr. Nash, 58, of Exton, an assistant public defender for Delaware County, and a decorated Navy fighter pilot, died Friday at Hahnemann University Hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Rosie O'Neill, 43, has a broken marriage, a well-meaning but presumptuous mother, a resentful office partner, an impossible job, an $80,000 Mercedes and, she complains, sagging breasts. She's trying to unload the car. Everything else, she's working on, with the help of her supportive sister, confused stepdaughter, gorgeous carpenter and expensive therapist. Sharon Gless plays Rosie, nee Fiona Rose O'Neill, a Beverly Hills-type lawyer who has left hefty legal fees behind to lend a hand as a public defender in The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, which premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on Channel 10. Most of the trials come outside the courtroom.

Joseph Hylan had two hours to save Kevin Scott Thomas from a possible five- year term in the slammer. Thomas, 32, had violated the three-year probation on which he had been placed by two Montgomery County judges for drug possession and receiving stolen property. While on that probation, he had been convicted by a Lehigh County court on charges of stealing $5.89 in candy bars and cigarettes from a convenience store - and Hylan had two hours to memorize his arrest record. Two hours to ask Thomas what went wrong.

New Jersey's public defenders are going to court to stop Gloucester County from closing its county jail and splitting its 250 to 350 inmates among four other county jails, including one in Newark. Not only will the move make it difficult for public defenders to help their clients, but the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders' decision to close the facility is a violation of state regulations, the lawsuit says. "We do not, as a matter of policy, comment on matters involving litigation," Gloucester County spokeswoman Debra Sellitto responded Monday.

Andre Boyer stands out in the Philadelphia Police Department, posting one of the highest arrest rates among the city's 6,600 officers year after year. Officer Boyer, assigned to North Philadelphia's 22d District, also holds the distinction of racking up the most civilian complaints - 21 - of anyone on the force, the city's Police Advisory Board says. Judges have questioned his tactics and his understanding of the law. There also was a 2008 confidential police investigation that found Boyer falsified dozens of arrest reports.

For Camden County public defender Ruth Ann Mandell of Cherry Hill, her death came much like her life: complicated, a bit unpredictable, yet decisive. In her legal career, she was not afraid to stand up to her boss or defy a judge. Outside court, she aspired to be the "first white Jewish female rapper," and wrote lyrics that celebrated the work of Jack Kevorkian, champion of physician-assisted suicide. Ms. Mandell practiced law and performed rap until March 20, when doctors discovered ovarian cancer that her brother Herbert said hit her like a "sledgehammer.

ASHTABULA, Ohio - Panicked witnesses to a fatal Easter service shooting in Ohio feared many might be killed as the victim's son approached the pulpit, waving a handgun and yelling about God and Allah. "Tragic as it is, it could have been so much worse," the Rev. Steve Sargent, associate pastor of the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ in Ashtabula, said Monday. Police say Reshad Riddle, 25, went to the church Sunday afternoon and killed his father, Richard Riddle, 52, with a single shot from a handgun.

A Gloucester County plan to outsource its adult male inmate population to other counties - making it the only county in New Jersey without its own jail - has come under fire from public defenders who say they can't possibly provide adequate representation to clients housed in jails an hour or more away. The lawyers, like the Gloucester County corrections officers whose jobs are in limbo, say the plan was hatched in secrecy by the freeholder board without consulting them. The ACLU says the plan also violates moral and practical imperatives to keep inmates close to their families.

James Cheatham is a forgiving man, but after getting robbed of $60 on his birthday while trying to perform an act of kindness, he had little reservation about testifying in court. Plus, the 45-year-old father of three from Queen Village had a subpoena to show up in court about the September incident, and he knew he couldn't ignore it. Which is why Cheatham was confused when, he says, a public defender called him twice before a scheduled February trial to tell him he didn't have to worry about court - that there was nothing a judge would do if he didn't show.

HARRISBURG - State Inspector General Kenya Mann Faulkner, whose investigations cast a critical eye on everything from welfare fraud to freebies for state liquor officials, is quitting the Corbett administration to become general counsel at the University of Cincinnati. "As inspector general, Kenya's mission was to ensure integrity, accountability, and confidence in public programs, employees, and contracts," Gov. Corbett said Monday in a statement announcing the move. "She has worked diligently to exceed that goal.

David Warren Wycoff, 56, of South Philadelphia, a Philadelphia public defender who fought on behalf of prisoners on death row, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday, Jan. 5, at Pennsylvania Hospital. For 20 years, Mr. Wycoff worked for the Federal Public Defender's Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia. Mr. Wycoff "was very proud to be a public defender," said his wife, Deborah Freedman, herself a lawyer. "He believed strongly that the death penalty was not just. " One of the highlights of his career occurred in 2005, when he argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, unsuccessfully challenging a homicide conviction, his wife said.

WASHINGTON - President Obama is expected to nominate Tuesday two judges with Philadelphia ties and Hispanic roots, along with Berks County's top judge, for seats on the federal district court covering the Philadelphia area. Obama plans to nominate Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, Luis Felipe Restrepo, and Jeffrey L. Schmehl for judgeships on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "These men and women have had distinguished legal careers, and I am honored to ask them to continue their work as judges on the federal bench," the president said in a statement.