Commissioners question sheriff ’s attorney fees

NORMAN — The state Attorney General’s office has sent a letter to Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester advising him that he can hire outside counsel to represent him in a lawsuit against the county, effective June 19. The problem from the sheriff’s perspective is that he hired an attorney months earlier.

According to the attorney general, Lester did not first seek disqualification of the county’s attorneys in representing him before hiring outside counsel. The letter to Lester, dated June 19, says he had no authority to employ an outside attorney without first seeking that disqualification.

The county is not liable for attorney fees incurred before the June 19 date, the attorney general said in the letter.

On Monday, commissioners acknowledged receipt of a letter from attorney Michael Denton informing them the sheriff had entered into a contract with him to provide legal services at the rate of $350 per hour. Associate attorney fees associated with legal services will be assessed at $250 an hour, according to Denton’s letter.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Robertson said commissioners needed to take no action on the contract entered into between the sheriff and Denton and made effective on June 19, but noted that expenses would be paid out of the sheriff’s department’s unrestricted budget funds.

Commissioner Harold Haralson raised questions about the fees being charged.

In a requisition request for attorney fees from Denton presented in March, the attorney said he was charging $250 an hour, with legal assistant time to be billed at $90 an hour and licensed legal intern time to be assessed at $100 per hour. No mention in that requisition was made of a fee for associate attorney fees.

“I see significant differences between this contract and the one we were presented with earlier this year,” Haralson said. He noted that Denton had raised his rate to $350 an hour and included $250 fees per hour for associate attorneys. The billing rate for interns remains the same in both contracts.

“I wonder if this an effort to recoup some of the fees that could not be billed the county” that were incurred before the June 19 date, Haralson said.

Neither the sheriff nor Denton were at the meeting to answer questions. Contacted later by telephone, Denton said he could not comment on the fee arrangements he has made with the county sheriff because it would be a violation of attorneyclient privilege.

The sheriff is suing the commissioners and the county budget board, contending they consistently have underfunded the operation of the jail. The commissioners have a constitutional duty to fully fund the jail without the sheriff’s having to dip into some of his nonrecurring cash accounts, the lawsuit states.

Commissioners have argued the sheriff traditionally has drawn on cash accounts to supplement the jail budget.

Earlier this year, the sheriff said he was $1.5 million short of the money needed to run the jail through the fiscal year that ended Friday.

At Monday’s meeting, Haralson said a review of year-end accounts for the sheriff’s department showed he had a surplus of $500,000 going into this fiscal year.

“He was able to meet his expenses, and there was no emergency,” Haralson said. “How could the sheriff make a $1.5 million-plus error in his own budget?”

The sheriff’s office currently is being audited. Haralson said the sheriff’s department is costing taxpayers about a quarter of a million dollars in audit and legal fees because of the lawsuit and ongoing problems with accounting.

No court date has been set in the lawsuit, which has been assigned to a Carter County judge.