ND: DA to run state PD office

Submitted without comment: Barnes County prosecutor hired as director of criminal defense agency

Robin Huseby, the Barnes County state's attorney, has been hired as director of a new state agency that will provide criminal defense lawyers for defendants who cannot afford them.

The prosecutor begins the job Nov. 1, said Joseph Maichel, chairman of the Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents. The 2005 Legislature established the commission to take the job of providing criminal defense attorneys out of the hands of judges, for whom the task may present a conflict of interest.