ESSEX DRUG COURT ON WAY

ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County Public Defender Mark Montayne says he'll have
responsibility for representing poor defendants in the new Drug Court.

"The Drug Court is going to take someone to respond immediately," Montayne
said. "That's not going to work out when you have a public defender who's
supposed to handle every felony."

Montayne said he may ask for a change in the county's local law creating
the Office of the Public Defender so the assistant public defender can
handle felonies if he gets called to a Drug Court case.

The Drug Court will be able to impose sentences fitting the nature of
substance-abuse crimes, including treatment and rehabilitation.

There's also a state domestic-violence court, and the state has named a
judge for the new court, he said.

"They're ripping cases out of local courts for this new court. But they
haven't passed a statute to create the new court."

Montayne said his office has 128 cases at present.

He created a two-page application for defender services that indigent
clients must fill out. It not only considers the defendant's income, but
that of his or her parents if the defendant is under age 21.

The chairman of the County Public Safety Committee, Supervisor Gerald
Morrow (D-Chesterfield), said the Office of the Public Defender, just
created this year, seems to be working out.

"We created the public defender to give better representation to defendants
but also less cost to the county," Morrow said.

"It (the assigned-counsel system) wasn't working very well; it was costing
us a lot of money," Supervisor Ronald Jackson (R-Essex) said.

"That's why we did this."