Labor/Employment
Jul. 25, 2002
Public Defender's Fate Lies in Judge's Hands
RIVERSIDE - A Riverside judge will decide next month on a former deputy public defender's request to hold Public Defender Gary Windom in contempt for allegedly publicizing privileged attorney-client information.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge J. Thompson Hanks was supposed to rule Tuesday on Gail M. Cronyn's request, but lawyers for Windom late Monday obtained a last-minute stay from the 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside requesting that the matter be heard by a different judge.
On Tuesday, Hanks transferred the matter to Presiding Judge Christian Thierbach, who assigned it to Judge Patrick Majers. Majers will hear the matter Aug. 1.
Cronyn, who was fired from the public defender's office in May 2001, has contended that Windom used transcripts from secret Marsden proceedings involving two public defender clients as evidence against her employment appeal.
After giving Windom permission to view the transcripts, Hanks told him to return them within five days and not copy them. Windom violated those orders, Rees Lloyd, Cronyn's husband and attorney, has contended.
According to Lloyd, Windom has used information from the transcripts - some of which casts Cronyn in a negative light - to assist in the county's fight against her appeal.
Most significantly, Lloyd has contended, Windom used the information without getting waivers from the defendants who made the Marsden motions - motions in which defendants can ask the court in a confidential hearing to change attorneys because of a conflict or some other reason.
"The real issue here is that Windom has a policy in which a defendant loses his attorney-client privilege if he makes a complaint in a Marsden hearing about a public defender," Lloyd said.
Daniel Spradlin, counsel for Riverside County with the Orange law firm of Woodruff, Spradlin & Smart, has asserted that Windom has done nothing wrong and contended he hasn't violated the attorney-client privilege of any defendant.
"This issue is just a sideshow," Spradlin said Tuesday. "I think the real issue here is that Gail Cronyn doesn't think she should have been fired from the public defender's office."
Public defender officials have said they fired Cronyn, 53, last year because she was inadequately representing clients. Cronyn has contended that she was fired from her $85,000-a-year job because of her gender, grievances filed with supervisors and involvement in the union representing the office.
Jason Armstrong & Sean Windle
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