WA: down and out in Grant County

Grant County public defender out — after big case

When Grant County recently settled a class-action lawsuit alleging shoddy work by its public defenders, it agreed not to rehire two attorneys whose work was condemned by plaintiffs.

But one of the two attorneys, Randy Smith, will apparently keep the court-appointed clients he already has — including Evan Savoie, a teenage murder defendant facing trial in April in one of the most highly publicized cases in Grant County history...

The identities of Smith and the other attorney named in the class-action settlement were to be kept a secret, at the county's request. But the ACLU of Washington, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, attached a sealed document to copies of the settlement agreement it e-mailed to several media outlets, including The Seattle Times. An ACLU spokesman says that was inadvertent...