THE DEFENSE
NEVER RESTS
can Civil Liberties Union, filed a
class action civil rights lawsuit
against the county on behalf of
three defendants turned down by
his office under the new policy.
The county filed a motion attacking the suit as baseless and
seeking to have it tossed out of
court. “Flora’s own dereliction of
duties” were responsible for the
plaintiffs’ lack of representation,
the county argued in a brief.
“A HEAVY BURDEN”
Flora is not far from retirement,
and has little to gain from the suit.
But he hopes his action will make a
difference for the attorneys on his
staff, many of whom are just starting their legal careers. He fears
that the younger attorneys, like
Olexa, are quickly burning out. “Ed
carries a heavy burden,” he says.
“He doesn’t have it easy up there
in Hazleton, all by himself.”
In 2009, Olexa had been an
attorney for three years, two of
which were spent as an assistant
prosecutor in the Luzerne County
district attorney’s office. The work
there was interesting, but the pay
was dismal, less than $30,000
a year. Payments on his student
loans left him clearing about $350
a week before taxes. He lived at
HUFFINGTON
10.28.12
home. “It wasn’t getting me out of
my parents’ basement,” he says.
That was when he jumped to
the Luzerne County public defender’s office, where he thought
he’d fare better. He was told he’d
earn about the same salary as he
did as an assistant prosecutor,
work fewer hours and have the
opportunity to take on private
cases in his spare time. But after
a few weeks on the job, he realized he had signed on for more
work, not less, and that his aspirations of building a private law
practice on the side were fated
to be overshadowed by his public defense work.
Just as disturbing was the impact the caseloads had on his
ability to function as an attorney.
There were too many clients and
nowhere near enough hours in the
day to do everything that needed
to be done. Client communication
suffered, as did investigations. For
a while, the office had no investigative support staff at all, leaving
lawyers to do their own investigative work. Sometimes the secretaries chipped in.
“We sent out secretaries to
take statements with no training
whatsoever,” he says. “They were
essentially clerical workers