CA: public defender management moment

Defender booted off murder case

A public defender said his client's rights had been "trampled" Thursday after one of the defender's supervisors unexpectedly announced the attorney was being pulled from a Redlands homicide case.

The decision, announced in open court, stalled proceedings involving three alleged gang members accused of murder, attempted murder, robbery and carjacking...

All four were in attendance when Supervising Deputy Public Defender Mary E. Logger asked for a continuance because Edward Stoliker, public defender for Tucker, was being taken off the case.

"Management has decided to reassign the case within the office," Logger told the judge. Logger declined to explain why Stoliker was being removed from the case and said instead that the reasons were internal to the office of the public defender.

Both Stoliker and prosecuting attorney Douglas Poston objected to the decision before the judge. They cited the amount of work Stoliker had put into the case to date, including familiarizing himself with 941 pages of discovery, and the delay that appointing new counsel would cause...

Outside the courtroom Stoliker said that Logger's announcement in open court marked the first time he heard anyone from his office say he was being removed from the case.