County settles lawsuit on defense for indigent

GEORGETOWN — Williamson County has approved the settlement of a 6-year-old lawsuit that accused it of not offering court-appointed lawyers to indigent defendants charged with misdemeanors.

The case was filed in 2006 by Kerry Heckman and three others against Williamson County, the Williamson County Commissioners Court and County Court-at-Law judges 1, 2 and 3. The plaintiffs were represented by the Texas Fair Defense Project.

“This is a good resolution of the case for Williamson County and it avoids future costly and time-consuming litigation,” said Hank Prejean of the Williamson County Attorney’s Office.

The county agreed to pay $20,000 to the Texas Fair Defense project for the cost of transcripts, travel and depositions, said Andrea Marsh, a lawyer for the defense project. She said the defense project will not receive any legal fees because they agreed to waive them if the case was settled prior to any additional trial proceedings.

Williamson County agreed to undergo routine audits on how indigent applications for lawyers are processed through the system from arrest to court appearance, said county spokeswoman Connie Watson.

The county also agreed to provide a closed-circuit TV for the public to view court proceedings if seating capacity is limited in county court at law courtrooms.

A trial court initially ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the Texas Third Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The Texas Fair Defense Project appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled the plaintiffs had the right to sue and sent the case back to the district court.

“We are certainly pleased with the impending resolution and glad that six years after we filed we are finally getting a commitment on the part of Williamson County and its officials to follow basic law about access to court proceedings and the right to council,” Marsh said.

Prejean said he argued that the plaintiffs’ claims were moot because they had all been appointed lawyers and their criminal cases had been resolved by the time the case reached the state high court.

The “alleged actual denials of the appointment of counsel were by a visiting judge from Travis County, not Williamson County,” Prejean said.

According to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission website, Williamson County spent more than $1.7 million in indigent defense costs for more than 5,000 cases in 2011, Watson said.