Idaho Supreme Court takes up class action suit

BOISE — The Idaho Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday in a class action lawsuit which seeks to reform the state's public defense system.

The lead plaintiff in the suit is Tracy Don Tucker, who was arrested in Bonner County in 2015 on allegations of attempted strangulation and domestic battery in the presence of a child.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho filed the suit on behalf of Tucker and all other Idaho residents who are facing criminal or juvenile charges but cannot afford to retain private counsel.

In Tucker's case, he was appointed a public defender but was not represented by one during an initial court appearance in which his bail was set at $40,000. Unable to post bail, Tucker spent three months in jail, but had only met with his attorney for a total of 20 minutes over the course of three visits, according to the civil complaint.

Tucker tried calling his public defender as many as 50 times, but was unable to get through.

"As of 10 days prior to Mr. Tucker's trial date, his attorney's demanding schedule had prevented him from conducting any meaningful investigation into Mr. Tucker's case, reviewing and explaining to Mr. Tucker the relevant discovery materials, or discussing trial strategy with Mr. Tucker," attorneys from the law firm Hogan Lovells said in the complaint.

Tucker ultimately pleaded guilty to the attempted strangulation charge and the domestic battery charge was dismissed, court documents indicate. Tucker was ordered to serve up to four years in prison, but the court retained jurisdiction in the matter.

When jurisdiction is retained, a defendant serves up to a year in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

The Idaho Supreme Court allowed Tucker's civil case to proceed in 2017 and the lawsuit was certified as a class action the following year. The high court is expected to decide what constitutional legal standard should be used to assess Idaho's public defense system.

Counsel for the ACLU said the state asked the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in 2000 to compile a report on Idaho public-defense system. The report concluded that none of the public defender systems in the sample counties were constitutionally adequate.

Specifically, the report identified a number of specific areas of concern with respect to trial-level, indigent-defense delivery in Idaho, including widespread use of fixed-fee contracts, extraordinarily high attorney caseloads and workloads, a lack of consistent communication with clients and nonexistent investigation of cases.

The Idaho Legislature, however, declined to make meaningful changes to the system, according to the ACLU.

The class action suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for defendants throughout Idaho from the ongoing injuries and harm caused by the state due to the continuing shortfall in effective legal counsel to indigent criminal defendants, which the ACLU argues violates the U.S. and Idaho constitutions.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com or followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.