Don’t penalize the AGO

I am writing to share my observations about the roles of the attorneys in the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Defender Office. Specifically, I would like to take issue with the notion that fairness demands parity between the number of prosecutors in the AG’s office and those in the Public Defender Office (“Bill seeks to eliminate two positions in AGO,” April 11, 2000).

There are good reasons for the AG Office’s criminal division to have more lawyers than the Public Defender Office. First of all, the Public Defenders do not represent all the criminal defendants; many people hire their own lawyers, represent themselves pro se, plead guilty at arraignment, or get appointed conflict counsel because the PD represents a codefendant or witness. By contrast the AG’s office represents the Commonwealth in every single criminal prosecution. In fact, at the current time, my own personal case load includes defendants represented by over 20 members of the CNMI Bar, excluding the Public Defenders.

Second, the Public Defenders see only cases that are actually charged, whereas the AG’s office must screen out scores of cases that, for one reason or another, cannot be charged and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Third, the AG’s office is involved in many community education efforts, designed to prevent crime and reduce caseloads for prosecutors and defense lawyers alike. For example, members of my office routinely participate in the Family Violence Task Force, the Multi-Disciplinary Response Team, instruction at the CNMI Police Academy, ongoing training with Saipan, Rota and Tinian’s police departments, and outreach to CNMI public school students. To be fair, I am sure that public defenders also participate in such efforts.

Finally, several of the positions in our office are funded with federal grant money, and would not exist if the chief prosecutor had not taken the time to apply for the grant money. To remove two positions would penalize the AG’s office for having had the initiative to apply for those positions.

I hope that my comments will not be misconstrued as saying the Public Defenders are not overworked or understaffed. They may well be. And I take my hat off to them for their hardwork. I just want the record to reflect that our two offices have very different duties, and those duties may require legitimate differences in the number of personnel assigned to each office.

Jim Benedetto

Assistant AG

Criminal Division