A proposal to create a public defender's office in Fort Bend County received a major blow Wednesday ...

1. Proposal for public defender in Fort Bend faces uphill battle
A proposal to create a public defender's office in Fort Bend County received a major blow
Wednesday when judges unanimously voted at a meeting against the idea after hearing details on
the potential costs and criticisms from the county's criminal defense bar.
County Commissioners will vote Tuesday whether to submit the grant application to the state Friday.
"I see this as a solution without a real problem," said Thomas R. Culver, judge of the 240th district
court. Culver said the county's indigent defense system, which relies on a wheel of qualified defense
lawyers to assign cases, works well enough. The county also has a dedicated public defender's office
for clients with severe mental health diagnoses.
A 2011 state review of the county's system praised Fort Bend officials "for their commitment to
indigent defense and concern for ensuring that those in need are provided with their constitutionally
protected right to representation." The report said the system was largely working.
The defense bar has used that report to organize its opposition to the proposal for a public
defender's office. And the judges agreed Wednesday that the current system was still working.
Judge R.H. Bielstein said he's had no-shows in his courtroom before, when defense assigned to
indigent clients failed to make court appearances, but said that that's a problem judges can fix. "The
judges need to be active in the appointment because the judges know the lawyers," said Bielstein,
who said he's been working to remove lawyers from the list of those available on the wheel. "If I get
a complaint, I investigate it," he said.
Those in favor of the office say the new position would not undermine the value of criminal defense
attorneys in the county. He questioned some of the opposition to the office as being driven by self-
interest. "This is not to put them out of business because even when you have a public defender's
office you still have an important role for people in private practice," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis,
who has pushed for the office as a way to provide more resources for defendants and ensure fewer
conflicts of interest.
But without support from the judges or criminal defense bar, some wonder how far the proposal will
go when the county commissioners consider it Tuesday.

2. "It's hard for me to believe that they would want to implement a system that had less than at least
half support," said Administrative Judge James Shoemake.
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