Second time in two consecutive court days, David Celli had to fill in for two deputy public defenders; one was a no show in court

Deputy Public Defender David Celli had to fill in for the second time for a colleague on two consecutive court days. On Friday, for Deputy Public Defender Wade Orbelian. Yesterday for Deputy Public Defender Emery Welton. Today, Mr. Celli was at the Board of Supervisors meeting. Where is Public Defender Luke Brownfield? 

Sheriff William Honsal showed up for his office today at the Board of Supervisors meeting. District Attorney Stacey Eads showed up a few minutes after Deputy DA Carolyn Schaffer. Mr. Celli was there and I did not see anyone else from the Public Defender's office while I was there.

Maybe we should just make Mr. Celli the public defender since deputy PDs MIA and not in court is quite frequent. The current Public Defender should be doing what other attorneys in his office end up handling in court. Mr. Brownfield who told Judge Kaleb Cockrum, "what do you want me to do?"  when Richard Stobaugh was not on Zoom in court at the last hearing. The California Department of State Hospitals' attorney had to handle Brownfield's job.

The County is paying an out of area law firm to defend Brownfield and former Public Defender Marek Reavis in the lawsuit filed by former Public Defender Rory Kalin. Gregory Kreis, the third co-defendant in that case settled with Kalin. 

I doubt First District Rex Bohn is going to do anything about Luke Brownfield and some of the other Public Defender's lackadaiscal behavior. They are being paid by the taxpayers. I would hope the other four Supervisors look closely at the PD's position and how the office is being run since budgets are an issue. Conflict Counsel is a much smaller office and staff and they show up for court and they don't have an attitude like certain people from the Public Defender's office. 

5/14: I received an email from Mr. Brownfield today saying he and Deputy Public Defender Ryan McClurg spoke at the meeting.

Mr. Brownfield: " I saw you reported on the board of Supervisor meeting. Just wanted to let you know that all my attorneys who weren’t in court were present. Dave Celli, Ryan McClurg and I all spoke. Here is the Times Standard article if you have more interest in what happened at the meeting."

My response:  "Thanks for the email. I don't need to read a report of the Times Standard 1. Their reporting is late and often inaccurate. That may not be the case in this instance.  2. They have a paywall 3. I reported what I saw while I was at the meeting while I was there. I don't report on one story a day or in a week and unlike the TS, I don't have the have the time or luxury to sit around and watch a video later. 5. I have written about short staffing in the courts on a regular basis. My observations that certain PDs were not in court are based on court records and live court coverage. 

I will add to my post that you emailed me and that you and Mr. McClurg also spoke."

5/14: Make that third time in less than a week for Mr. Celli. Today, he appeared in court for Deputy Public Defender Adrian Kamada on Alyssa Brook's case. When I came out of Courtroom 3, Mr. Brownfield was sitting outside court.