The exterior of the Marquette County Public Defender’s Office, which is located at 228 W. Washington St. in Marquette, is pictured. (Journal photo by Cecilia Brown)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Public Defender’s Office, which officially opened in February, held an open house Tuesday, giving attendees an opportunity to tour the office, meet staff and learn more about the functions of the new office.

The office, which is located at 228 W. Washington St. in Marquette, provides legal counsel for defendants who are indigent, meaning that they cannot afford their own legal counsel.

Marquette County Chief Public Defender Patrick Crowley, who moved to the area in February to take the position, has been busy hiring staff and coordinating with the courts as the new public defender’s office takes shape, in addition to handling cases himself, he said.

The office aims to “provide excellent representation to the people who can’t afford a lawyer,” he said.

“We want to make sure that our clients are heard and are heard from,” Crowley said. “And if we can solve problems for people, then that’s what we want to do.”

The public defender’s office staffers include legal secretary Lisa Place, office manager Laurie Skytta, as well as assistant public defenders Dakota Fountain and Patrick Jennings.

Fountain had been in private practice for seven years prior to taking the position, while Jennings, who is starting the position this week, has been in private practice for 20 years. Both previously served as court-appointed attorneys and have experience in indigent criminal defense cases.

The office, while new, is already handling 40 to 60 cases per week.

“It’s nice to be able to work with the community, work with the client base and if they need services, get those services in place,” Fountain said. “We have the resources to be able to do all of that.”

Crowley and his team are with clients from the initial arrest or charge, he said, ensuring they have the resources and information to navigate the court system.

“We meet with absolutely everybody who is arrested or charged with anything in Marquette County,” he said. “Even if they go on to retain counsel, or even if they go on to decide, ‘You know what, I don’t really need a lawyer,’ we will have still met with them. We will have still explained to them as best as we can what’s going on. And we will have still offered them advice if we can.”

This is important, as the public defender’s client base consists of “those individuals that need the help the most,” Fountain said, adding that “a lot of them have never been in trouble before, and they need somebody there to walk them through the process, to explain the process to them.”

While the public defender’s office serves a number of functions, officials emphasized there are many things that are outside the scope of the office, as it can only serve indigent adult defendants in criminal cases in Marquette County. For example, the office cannot represent minors, non-criminal cases, or take cases not assigned to them by the court.

“We are not legal aide. You can’t just walk into my office and ask us to take over your case,” Crowley said. “We receive 100% of criminal indigent clients from the Marquette County courts; we are appointed by judges.”

The development of the public defender’s office stems from new requirements set in 2017 by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, or MIDC. The MIDC aimed to improve the quality of indigent defense in Michigan as part of the response to a 2007 lawsuit against the state over its approach to providing legal counsel for indigent defendants.

“That’s why the state came up with the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, to try to set up a better way of having representation of people,” Jennings said. “So that’s why we’re here and hopefully it’ll work better for people in the community.”

While the indigent defense system in Marquette County — which was previously a rotating roster of court-appointed attorneys who would represent indigent individuals — has historically worked well, the development of the new requirements will help ensure indigent defense is standardized to a high quality throughout the state, Crowley said.

“Members of Marquette County were fortunate that they had good attorneys. Not all defendants are that lucky. Not all the attorneys statewide are good lawyers,” he said. “So now we have theoretically, the money, the office, the access to resources, the access to expert witness, the access to investigators, the access to training and classes, that we can now fairly call ourselves the mirror image to the prosecutor’s office.”

Due to Michigan’s requirement for counties to meet the new standards once state funding for the program was in place, the public defender’s office is funded by both the state and the county, Marquette County Administrator Scott Erbisch said previously.

The amount the county contributes annually is based on an average of its annual indigent defense costs over a period of three years. The county’s contribution to fund the 2018-2019 fiscal year is about $224,000, and the state’s contribution for the fiscal year is $631,000, Erbisch said previously, noting that some of the initial budget is for the one-time costs associated with opening the office, such as furniture and equipment.

The Marquette County Public Defender’s Office is located at 228 W. Washington St., Suite 3 in Marquette. The office can be reached at 906-226-4370.

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.