No public defenders available to represent men caught attempting escape

When four men caught attempting to escape from the Minnesota Sexual Offender Program in Moose Lake on June 19 appeared in Carlton County District Court on Monday, Northeastern Minnesota Chief Public Defender Fred Friedman told Judge Dale Wolf that he didn’t have attorneys available to represent the defendants.

Friedman said because of budget cuts, his public defender staff — which represents clients who can’t afford to pay for attorneys in St. Louis, Carlton, Lake and Cook counties — has been cut from 36 to 29 in the past two years.

“Oddly, we’re in the business of protecting people’s liberties, but none of us have the ability to provide these four men with liberty,’’ Friedman said Wednesday. “If they’re convicted of attempting to escape they will do a few months in jail or prison and then go back into the hospital [for sex offenders]. If they’re acquitted, they go back into the hospital. Either way, they never get out of the hospital.”

Friedman said the four are scheduled to be back in court on July 26.

“I’ve got no money and I’ve got no lawyers for them,’’ he said. “I know it’s my responsibility to find a lawyer for them. I’ve brought this to the attention of the state public defender and the state Supreme Court. … Perhaps in the new fiscal year, starting in July, they’ll find emergency funds to hire lawyers for these folks.”

Friedman is critical of the high cost to house offenders in the Moose Lake program.

“It’s easy to make a case why dangerous people should remain in prison,’’ he said. “It’s not so easy to make a case why dangerous people should be removed to a hospital. The prison is 60-some dollars a day [to house inmates]; the hospital is hundreds of dollars a day.”

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