Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Meting out justice in California’s court system is no easy task, but finding justice in San Bernardino County, where the line between right and wrong has been blurred into oblivion, is almost impossible.  Friendships between defense counsel and prosecutors or judges and sheriffs are hardly unheard of in the legal community but sleeping with the enemy—literally, has become a way of life in our local justice system.

Two of the basic tenets of the American criminal justice system are 1) a defendant is innocent until proven guilty and 2) all defendants have the right to legal counsel to assist them in their defense of the charges against them.  But criminal defense attorneys come with a significant price tag attached and a majority of those charged with crimes are in the lowest economic bracket.  So to provide a defense for indigent defendants, all counties in our state have a public defender’s office whose cost for legal services is based on the ability to pay. Continue reading →