Lancaster County
Public Defender
Public Defender
lancaster.ne.gov
From 1969 to 1970, the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners studied the idea of establishing a Public Defender's Office to represent individuals in all felony criminal cases prosecuted in the County and District Courts. With the support and assistance of the Lincoln Bar Association, the County Board established the office pursuant to statute. In Resolution # 2607, dated December 15, 1970, the county board established the office, set the salary of the elected public defender at $15,000 and agreed to allow the public defender to have a private practice as long as it did not conflict with his duties as public defender. The Resolution gave notice that anyone interested in applying for the position should make written application on or before December 22, 1970. The resolution was signed by then commissioners Ralph E. Harlan, William M. Grossman, and Kenneth Bourne.
The minutes of the January 12, 1971 meeting of the Board of Commissioners show that a letter was received from Willis R. Hecht, then President of the Lincoln Bar Association, indicating that T. Clement Gaughan was the Lincoln Bar Association's choice for the new public defender position. He was unanimously appointed by the board. One of the commissioners suggested that Gaughan be allowed one deputy and one investigator. Gaughan told the board that he accepted the position and that "he had been defending indigent (sic) people for quite some time." He requested two deputies instead of one and an investigator. Paul Douglas, who was then the Lancaster County Attorney, told the board that the public defender should have two deputies and no investigator.
The minutes of the January 19, 1971 meeting of the Board of Commissioners has several references to the newly created public defender's office. The board approved the proposed budget of the public defender in the amount of $29,775 for the period of January 12, 1971 to June 30, 1971. The board also approved the appointment of Richard L. Goos as Chief Deputy Public Defender at a salary of $12,000 per year "commencing immediately." Also, Gaughan told the board that he didn't really need a full time investigator, but would hire one when needed and pay him on an hourly basis. In subsequent meetings, the board approved Paul M. Conley as a Deputy Public Defender at a salary of $11, 000 per year effective March 1, 1971 and the employment of a secretary, Shea Maher, at a salary of $400 per month. On June 1, 1971 the board approved the employment of Dennis R. Keefe as an investigator and law clerk at a salary of $400 per month. This completed the appointment of the initial staff of the agency. In 1974, the first election for this office was held and T. Clement Gaughan was elected to the position of Lancaster County Public Defender.
The initial offices for the agency were located at 3701 Calvert Street until temporary offices were located in the County City Building in 1972. At that time, three attorneys, one secretary and the part-time law clerk/investigator shared two offices on the second floor of the County-City Building, which were then part of the County Commissioners' suite of offices. These offices marked the first of five locations within the old County- City Building (now the Hall of Justice & Law Enforcement Center) that housed the public defender staff over the years.
In the very first year of operation, the caseload consisted of some felony cases, including post-conviction actions, and a very few juvenile appointments. The wave of misdemeanors, child support contempts, mental health commitments, juvenile cases, paternity establishment and miscellaneous prison cases was yet to come.
1972 marked the beginning of misdemeanor defense practice for the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office. This coincided with the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972). That year, the office opened a total of 161 misdemeanors. The following year, 1973, saw the beginning of an agreement between the city and county for the Public Defender services in cases prosecuted by the City Attorney in what was then Municipal Court. 35 "Municipal Court" cases were opened in 1973. The County Attorney-filed misdemeanors mushroomed from 151 new open cases in 1972 to 451 new open cases in 1973.
The 1970's brought responsibilities to the Public Defender's Office in addition to the Municipal Court and County Court cases. Mental health commitment cases, child support contempt actions and a variety of prisoner lawsuits from the State Department of Correctional Services were all laid on the public defender's doorstep. Juvenile cases, once limited to a few new delinquency actions per year, expanded the caseload further with appointments in child abuse and neglect cases, as well as status offender and "dependency" cases. In short, the 1970's, through court mandates and legislative action, saw expansion in the nature and role of the office beyond what anyone imagined possible in 1971.
To no one's surprise, these caseload increases resulted in an expansion of the office. From 1971 to 1978, the office grew from 3 attorneys to 8 attorneys and from 1 secretary to 2. While there was some turnover, the attorneys who began their service in the office from 1971 thru 1978, in addition to the original 3, were:
| Dennis Keefe | 1973 to 1975 |
| Robert Eberly | 1972 to 1979 |
| Toney Redman | 1973 to 1975 |
| Dennis Carlson | 1974 to 1981 |
| George Sornberger | 1975 to 1979 |
| Tom Hagel | 1975 to 1980 |
| Rodney Rehm | 1975 to 1980 |
| James L. Foster | 1976 to 1983 |
Vickie O'Connor was legal secretary from approximately June of 1971 to June of 1972. Dianna Whetstone worked as a legal secretary from 6/28/72 through 11/26/80. Monica Socha began as a legal secretary in the office on 11/12/76.
In January of 1979, Dennis Keefe who had previously served as the office's first law clerk (1971-1973) and then as a deputy (1973-1975) became Lancaster County's second elected public defender. At that time, the office included eight full time attorneys, including Keefe, two secretaries and four part-time law clerks. The overall caseload appeared to be excessive and there was specific concern regarding the ever- increasing "Municipal Court" caseload.
At Keefe's request, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) of Washington, D.C. performed an evaluation of the office in August of 1979. The evaluator was Howard B. Eisenberg, former State Public Defender for Wisconsin and then Defender Director of NLADA. While the evaluation complimented the office personnel as "exceptionally dedicated individuals" the report noted the following regarding staffing:
It is apparent to me that the single major problem facing your office is one of inadequate staffing.
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It is clear that since 1972 the caseload in your office has exceeded national guidelines quite substantially. If the 1979 projections hold true, [and they did] your office will be handling almost 50% more cases than are recommended in the national guidelines.
In addition, these national guidelines assume adequate support staff such as secretaries and investigators. It is my judgment that your office has insufficient secretarial support, and requires full time investigators.
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Based on the statistics alone, I would suggest that a minimal staffing increase of three lawyers, one secretary and two investigators is warranted. Indeed, this may still be below national guidelines, but I think it is realistically a staff that could provide representation in Lancaster County.
Following the NLADA evaluation of the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office, the Lincoln Bar Association, after study by the Judicial Administration Committee, recommended the addition of two staff attorneys. The Lancaster County Board accepted and approved the recommendation and in 1980 two new staff attorney positions were added.
The remainder of the evaluator's recommendations regarding staff were much later in bearing fruit. It wasn't until 1983 that an additional secretarial position and one paralegal position were approved by the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners.
Clerical assistance has been supplemented by volunteer interns. These interns are students who earn credit hours by working in the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office at no cost to the county.
In November, 1980, the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was selected as a test site for a then new manual case management/calendaring system developed by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. The AMICUS system was tested and fully implemented in the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office by January of 1981. Its purpose was to provide a historical record of each case, to help the attorneys manage cases, to provide central calendaring for the office and to provide management with information concerning cases, caseload, and workload.
In 1985, the County City Data Processing Department, through the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), developed and began implementation of an expanded computerized version of AMICUS for the Public Defender. Full implementation of this automated program, nicknamed "GIDEON," was accomplished by the end of 1986.
In 1981, the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was selected by the Edna McConnell Clarke Foundation of New York City and NLADA to receive grant start up funds for an alternative sentencing center. Thus began the Nebraska Center on Sentencing Alternatives (NCSA). NCSA took referrals from private attorneys, court appointed counsel and public defenders. The director then assigned a case planner to develop a sentencing plan for the client which was used by the Judge as an alternative to confining the individual.
NCSA was originally housed at the University of Nebraska Special Vocational Needs office, but later moved to share office space with the Lancaster County Pre-trial Diversion Program for a short period of time. Local private foundation funding and case fees supported NCSA after the initial funding year. For a variety of reasons, including a lack of funding, NCSA ceased providing services in 1990.
The Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was honored nationally in 1989 with the Reginald Heber Smith Award presented to Richard L. Goos by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. Mr. Goos was nominated for the award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by a public defender lawyer, by Robert Grimit, then president of the Nebraska State Bar Association. His nomination was seconded by members of the Nebraska Supreme Court, the District and County Court and past and present co- workers as well as scores of private attorneys.
Mr. Goos was formally presented with the award before more than 700 people at the NLADA's annual awards dinner in Kansas City, Missouri on November 17, 1989. Over 40 people attended from Lincoln, Nebraska.
In 1990 the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, at the request of Lancaster County Public Defender Dennis Keefe, contracted with The Spangenberg Group of West Newton, Massachusetts, specialists in indigent defense systems, to conduct a study of the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office with regard to (1) internal management actions that could increase the operating efficiency of the office and (2) development of caseload/workload standards for the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office. After reviewing numerous materials relating to the caseload and staffing of the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office and following a three day site visit in July of 1990, a final report entitled "Study of the Current Operation of the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office" was presented to the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners by Patricia A. Smith, Vice President of The Spangenberg Group in March of 1991.
Prior to listing their findings and recommendations, The Spangenberg Group commented on the office as follows:
It is evident that the office is well-managed. The individual attorney caseloads are monitored carefully, using the GIDEON MIS, and work is distributed in a fair and efficient manner. Although the caseload is at a very serious level, the attitude of the attorneys is concerned, but positive. The staff is hardworking, very competent, and exhibits a high level of cooperation. Their work is held in high regard by the courts and law enforcement.
The Spangenberg Group went on to make seven specific recommendations regarding the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office. Steps have been taken with regard to each of the recommendations to improve the operating efficiency of the office.
In 1991, at the request of Lancaster County Public Defender Dennis Keefe, John Guthery, then President of the Lincoln Bar Association, appointed a special committee to study and make recommendations concerning the system of assigned counsel currently in use in the various courts of Lancaster County. Rodney Rehm, an attorney with criminal defense and prosecution background, was appointed Chairman of the committee and other committee members appointed were: Alan Peterson, Susan Jacobs, Richard Sievers, James Mowbray, David Geier, The Honorable Bernard J. McGinn, The Honorable Wilfred Nuernberger and The Honorable Richard Williams.
The committee reviewed and considered a variety of materials relating to the appointment of counsel for indigents in criminal cases. After a number of meetings, the committee made a number of recommendations in a report entitled "Assigned Counsel in the Courts of Lancaster County, Nebraska" which was approved by the Board of Trustees of the Lincoln Bar Association on March 6, 1991 and presented to the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners and the judiciary of Lancaster County soon thereafter.
Because of Congressional changes to the federal act providing monies to state and local governments for the War on Drugs, indigent defense systems became eligible for funding in 1991. Nebraska received approximately 3.3 million dollars in 1991 for the War on Drugs. Under the direction of the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office, Lancaster County was awarded $9,000.00 for training for public defenders and assigned counsel. Lancaster County contracted with the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association to provide this training on a statewide basis. Some amount of training money was awarded to indigent defense every year thereafter.
In November of 1991, the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was awarded the 1991 Defender of the Bill of Rights Award by the Nebraska Civil Liberties Union. This award was given in recognition of the numerous hours of volunteer assistance that a number of attorneys within the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office provided over and above their regular working responsibilities, to attorneys representing Harold Otey, an inmate whose execution was scheduled in July of 1991. Through the efforts of numerous volunteer attorneys, the execution was delayed and the District Court of Lancaster County, Nebraska issued an injunction prohibiting the execution until a "fair hearing" was held before the Pardons Board.