This, according to Chief Public Defender Adam Hardwicke in an interview, applies to defendants with varying cases from traffic cases to murder.
“About 95 percent of the cases are resolved through plea bargaining agreement,” Hardwicke said.
What they usually do is explain to the defendants what happens if the court goes through trial or if they enter into a plea agreement.
“We don’t do any persuading, we can give our opinion and tell our clients what may happen if the case goes to trial but the decisions lie with the clients,” Hardwicke said.
The relationship between the lawyer and the defendant, he added, and the amount of trust defendants put on their lawyer counts a lot in how the cases are resolved.
Hardwicke said one challenge that they face is that some defendants consider PDO lawyers as a part of the government.
“We earn our client’s trust by sitting down and talking with them, but it’s still their decision if they enter into plea bargaining,” he said.
With only five lawyers to handle the case loads of the PDO, Hardwicke said each of them gets 50 to 70 cases.
These include traffic cases, domestic violence, disturbing the peace, theft, juvenile and other cases.
They also handle cases on Tinian and Rota.
PDO’s main function, according to Hardwicke, is to defend indigent clients.
“For a defendant to qualify for the services of a public defender, he or she must fall under certain conditions like income bracket and other conditions, but the superior court judges decide if a client is qualified or not,” he said.
Working with Hardwicke at the PDO are Assistant Public Defenders Doug Hartig, Richard Miller, Matt Holley and Janet King.
King handles the cases from Rota in addition to her regular caseload here, while Holley handles the Tinian caseload in addition to the juvenile and other cases on Saipan.
PDO’s clients range from 13 to 65 years old and about 90 percent of them are males.
Hardwicke said they had to have a close working relationship with the Attorney General’s Office even though their duties may differ. “When somebody gets arrested and is put in custody, our number one job is to get that person out as soon as possible,” he said. The AGO, for its part, wants to make sure that the arrested person doesn’t get out of jail, and if he does, he must follow rules and conditions set by the court.
