Letter to the Editor

Dear editor,

On Wednesday, April 28, the Hays County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a Public Defender office. This win for quality indigent defense comes after three years of advocacy efforts led by Mano Amiga. The only “NO” vote of the 20-person body came, predictably, from Todd Dudley, a representative of the group calling itself the Defense Bar.

He told those gathered: “If I’m doing the math right, we’re looking at each [PDO] attorney handling 73 felonies and 120 misdemeanors … that’s just not possible. I handled 21 last year and I’ve been doing this for 25 years, so my concern would be the caseload for these lawyers with this proposition is just not feasible.”