New Mexico judge finds public defender in contempt

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — 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.