CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The number of people with mental illnesses in the State of Texas has many counties setting up a public defenders office to change how they deal with the issue.
Nueces County is waiting for word on whether its own grant is going to be approved to fund an office.
District Judge Missy Medary took her oath of office to serve another term on the State's Indigent Defense Commission. That Commission funds public defenders in every county in the state. It does that largely through grants.
Nueces County has applied for a $14 million grant to set up a public defenders office. It would specifically target those cases that involve a mental health aspect.
"Our mental health population is 24% of the jail. And 24% of the cases that we handle have a mental health aspect," Medary said. "So, why not have someone trained to help that type of individual than trying to have a lawyer learn to do it on their own?"
Two local attorneys were among those working to get the grant for the County, They said the office has been needed for a long time.
Danice Obregon is one of those attorneys. She told 3News how the Nueces County Public Defenders Office would be set up.
"There would be an office supervised by one lead chief public defender supervising a team of attorneys. I believe the proposal was between 10 and 15 additional attorneys," Obregon said.
Lisa Greenberg is the President of the Coastal Bend Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. She feels that a public defenders office would help to streamline criminal cases. That could help with the backlog of cases in Nueces County. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the number of criminal cases pending in Nueces County has gone up 64%.
"Instead of going through the normal court process, which we know takes forever, we might be able to take it right to this resource," Greenberg said," and tell the mental health public defender, 'Hey, this is a case for you,' or, 'Can you give us the resources to sort of streamline the system and make sure this person gets what they need?'"
Medary said she expects that in coming weeks the County will know whether the State has approved the grant application for a new mental health public defenders office.
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