Page 12 - Jon Casey News Today

because there had been a front page story staying county was suing the state saying it didnt have enough money to defend the poor. so i get to court and im expecting to see lines of people coming out the door like i did in georgia but when i get there there were only eight people. and was sort of perplexed. where was everybody? was thereto not a lot of crime in this place? i start giving out my cards trying to learn about this place. my cell phone starts ringing off the hook. everybody...

work that your office does. >> well, the problem in fresno, it is hot. trezz know is hot of course in the -- fresno is hot of course in summertime. it is hot all the time for me. i think the problem just mentioned right now is disparity in the funding theme as opposed to the ore parties involved in the criminal -- other parties involved in the criminal justice system. most of the funding agencies for us is almost 100% from the county. while the prosecution has the benefit of grants. in...

investigator would say i dont know if we can win this one. and that one woman, she had been beaten up by her boyfriend underneath a bridge. her daughter and her niece were inside of a locked car watching, screaming to get out and they watched as he pummeled her with a tire iron and at the scene of the crime according to the police report there was a hair weve, there was one of her shoes and this was a picture in the back of her file that showed these huge bloody contusions on her face,...

dont have to make it public, and if you lived in the county, all right, you might know, i know somebody who was beaten up but the case didnt go anywhere, nobody put together these patterns. thats one of the great meanings of ordinary justice. >> john, do you know miss wiggs? >> new york city but i wish i did. -- no, but i wish i did. i remember reading somewhere a few years ago that a prosecutor had never been disbarred. i think that changed this year. there was a prosecutor suspended ...

grant positions. so were up against a resource that doesnt go down in the same proportional rate as we do. we get contracted further than they are. thats the disparity now. they try find a way to make it cheaper. those ideas are always popping up. you see them all over the state. is it cheaper to do it by privatizing the public defender? as opposed to maintaining the institutional public defender? i think that we see what we see as public defenders, maybe im biased in this regard but w...

watched as he pummeled her with a tire iron and at the scene of the crime according to the police report there was a hair weve, there was one of her shoes and this was a picture in the back of her file that showed these huge bloody contusions on her face, a stripe. she was in the hospital for three days and she couldnt work anymore because he had beaten her so badly on her back that she couldnt bend over. she was a housekeeper in a casino. i tried to figure out why wasnt this case pros...

doing wrong. >> well, prosecutors pretty much have unfair discretion to decide what to prosecute and whatnot to prosecute. and i had gone to a county in mississippi and i got there because there had been a front page story staying county was suing the state saying it didnt have enough money to defend the poor. so i get to court and im expecting to see lines of people coming out the door like i did in georgia but when i get there there were only eight people. and was sort of perplexed. ...

all right. lets go to public defender kenneth. ken, tell us. you are in fresno. first of all, what is it like in fresno? [laughter] and tell us about this battle that you have been going through where, you know, it almost sounds like a horror movie where they are going after you with a buzz saw and at the same time, they have used contract attorneys to try to undercut the work that your office does. >> well, the problem in fresno, it is hot. trezz know is hot of course in the -- fresno...

violence case in 20 years. there are these patterns that we cant see or know because under the guise of discretion and they dont have to make it public, and if you lived in the county, all right, you might know, i know somebody who was beaten up but the case didnt go anywhere, nobody put together these patterns. thats one of the great meanings of ordinary justice. >> john, do you know miss wiggs? >> new york city but i wish i did. -- no, but i wish i did. i remember reading somewhere a...

page story staying county was suing the state saying it didnt have enough money to defend the poor. so i get to court and im expecting to see lines of people coming out the door like i did in georgia but when i get there there were only eight people. and was sort of perplexed. where was everybody? was thereto not a lot of crime in this place? i start giving out my cards trying to learn about this place. my cell phone starts ringing off the hook. everybody has got a story. at the librar...