Life as a Public Defender
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -- As the elderly man made his way to the podium everyone in the courtroom just froze and looked at him. I know we were all thinking the same thing -- what crime could this man have possibly committed?
The man in dark glasses was carrying a long cane and a friend was leading him by the elbow to the front of the courtroom. Yes he was blind. Right away I grabbed the docket to see why he was a defendant in county court. He was in court because he violated his terms of probation for a driving under the influence charge.
After a brief conversation with the judge, those in the courtroom learned that the man didn't have an attorney and he could not afford one. The judge suggested that the man may want to fill out the application to have the public defender, me, appointed to his case.
I sat with this gentleman and we filled out his application together. I had to ask about his debts, income and any property he may own. When it came time for him to sign the form I guided his hand to the area where there's a signature line on the page. At this point I asked him when he lost his sight. He told me he had diabetes and this caused him to go blind. I knew it was recent because he was charged with driving under the influence less than two years ago.
Once he qualified for a public defender, the judge appointed me to the case. I told my new client that we had to wait for the representative from probation to show up before I could start to negotiate a resolution. This man's violation included: not attending driving school, not doing community service hours and not reporting to probation.
When the probation officer arrived in the courtroom I huddled with her and the prosecutor. Even though they are usually my adversaries I realized no words were needed. I just pointed to my client and asked, "How are we going to resolve this one?" We all knew we needed to make this case go away.
After a brief conversation we agreed that probation would be revoked in exchange for one day in the Broward County Jail, with credit for the one day my client spent incarcerated when he was originally arrested on the drunk driving charge.
As his attorney I was the one to deliver the good news. I could actually feel this burden lift from his shoulders as I told him his criminal case was over. He now had one less stressful thing in his life to worry about.
Those of us in the courtroom, a group of people who work with each other almost every day, never mentioned the man again but I know we all felt good about the outcome.
The high profile trials of Manuel Noriega, Timothy McVeigh, OJ Simpson and George Zimmerman are among the important legal stories Kim Segal covered as a journalist for over two decades. While working as a producer for CNN, she began attending law school at night, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2005.
At 46, she left her television career for a position as a Public Defender in Broward County, Florida.
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