South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

When two former Pennsylvania judges were indicted after accusations that they had received millions of dollars in kickbacks and payments in exchange for sentencing children to detention centers, one thing that was pointed out was that many of the children who appeared before them were not represented by counsel.

One of the questions that has been asked is why no-one stepped in and stopped it from happening - if the children who stood before the court had counsel as they are entitled to, would the kids for cash scandal have been exposed sooner?

Luverne County Chief Public Defender Basil G. Russin appeared before a commission last month to answer questions including why he did not step in and do something - Russin's response was that there was no funding for juvenile court, he and his lawyers had no training in juvenile justice and, despite concerns expressed to him by an assistant public defender, they did not provide lawyers to juveniles.

"... unfortunately until a month ago, we had no training in juvenile," Russin said last month. "We have, you know, our funding. It's a terrible cop out and a terrible excuse. We didn't know what defenses existed out there. We do now. And now I see all the work we have ahead of us. And I don't know where I'm going to get the money to do this, but hopefully I can get it somewhere." . . .

While testifying, Russin admitted that Assistant Public Defender Jonathan Ursiak expressed concerns to him juveniles appearing before Ciavarella without attorneys.

. . . "I said, we're not going to seek clients. And we don't have the time or the manpower to intervene," Russin said.

It is a cop-out, and Russin's office shares the responsibility for what happened in Luverne County, but nevertheless it also spotlights why funding for indigent defense is important and what can happen when it falls by the wayside.