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The Latest: Public defender standoff reaches Supreme Court

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on a funding crisis in the New Mexico judiciary system (all times local): 5:50 p.m. A state prosecutor is asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to order public defense attorneys back to work on behalf of indigent defendants at courts in Lea County. District Attorney Dianna Luce said Wednesday she has submitted an emergency petition that urges the Supreme Court to intervene in cases where legal representation was declined or withdrawn by the Law Offices of the Public Defender. Chief Public Defender Ben Baur says that state budget restrictions mean his office can no longer effectively provide counsel to people in Lea County who cannot afford an attorney. A Lea County District Judge has found Bauer in contempt. Luce says Lea County is experiencing a breakdown in the judicial process and that public defenders do not have the authority to decline representation to indigent criminal defendants. ___ 10:20 a.m. A New Mexico judge has found the state's chief public defender in contempt for failing to provide lawyers to defendants who couldn't afford them. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports (http://bit.ly/2gVDBVn ) that Lea County District Judge Gary Clingman also imposed a $1,000 fine in each of five criminal cases in which the public defender's office failed to make an appearance. Clingman told Chief Public Defender Ben Baur that he could purge the contempt findings by following his statutory duty to represent defendants. Baur says his agency does have that statutory duty but also has an ethical obligation to provide effective and constitutional representation. Public Defender Commission Chairman Michael Stout wrote in a letter Tuesday that the judge's decision is the clearest consequence so far of the funding crisis facing the Law Offices of the Public Defender.