A.G. Gancarski
Fourth Circuit public defender Matt Shirk has been under fire so long it’s hard to remember when he wasn’t. A shower scandal will do that to you. He has yet to file for re-election, and he dodged one significant challenge when Mike Weinstein took a job in the Lenny Curry administration.
Even after Weinstein demurred, Shirk still hedged his bets when it came to filing for re-election.
He has yet to file.
Now, if he does, he has an opponent who has, like Weinstein, credibility throughout the Jacksonville area. But unlike Weinstein, who raised $40,000 for the race before quietly withdrawing, he’s in it to win it.
On Monday, Duval County Judge Charles Cofer retired from the bench. On Tuesday, he telegraphed his move to run for public defender to replace Shirk. And he has tough critiques of the incumbent.
On Wednesday, Cofer drove to Tallahassee, very early in the morning, to open his campaign account.
On the way back, he talked with FloridaPolitics.com.
Cofer described Shirk as “all icing and no cake,” underperforming in key ways.
“His job is to provide adequate representation for defendants,” Cofer said. “What I fault him for is his failure of leadership.”
“I don’t offer ill will toward Shirk,” Cofer said. However, he said he “couldn’t stand by any longer and see the office suffering.”
The public defender office, Cofer charges, has “taken a step back.”
And that step back is in many ways. On the bench, he’s heard “almost daily … complaints about lawyers” from the public defender office “not doing this, that, and the other.”
“It’s obvious to me,” Cofer added, “that many of the public defender’s clients don’t have the feeling that the office is committed to them.”
That “atmosphere of distrust” is not new, said Cofer, and undermines the client/attorney relationship.
“It goes back to Shirk running eight years ago, seeking the state attorney’s endorsement,” which prominent lawyers in the Florida Bar saw as “curious and questionable” given that the public defender and state attorney are “natural adversaries.”
“I don’t know of anyone else running for public defender who would ask,” Cofer said.
“It’s unheard of.”
Beyond that blurring of lines, there is an issue of inadequate leadership in the public defender’s office, said Cofer.
“It’s a fact of life,” Cofer said, “that the public defender office is staffed by young attorneys.”
But they can’t all be young; ideally, there is a mix of young, midlevel, and senior attorneys, to help those upstarts who are “working hard,” yet “need to learn the ropes.”
The consequences of callowness can be catastrophic for clients.
“I’ve seen cases in trial,” Cofer said, “where [public defender office] attorneys were missing issues, missing objections … I’ve sat there, seen the issue, but nothing happens.”
Cofer notes that mandatory sentencing and the removal of judicial discretion makes the job of public defender more difficult than it was decades back. Thus, experienced, well-trained leadership is essential to offer guidance to young attorneys in that office.
“Right now that aspect is not being done,” Cofer said, “and it’s something that I know I can do.”
Being an effective public defender is about more than wins and losses, Cofer said; it’s a matter of knowing the process and how to provide the best possible representation for clients.
Strong rumors of Cofer running swirled this summer, as our readers know, with former Florida Bar President Hank Coxe endorsing him in the strongest terms.
“Judge Cofer would bring integrity; the respect of the entire legal and nonlegal community; an outstanding work ethic; and an effective ability to manage a staff. In my judgment Mr. Shirk comes up woefully short in all four categories as reflected in the Duval County Grand Jury Presentment,” Coxe, among the most highly regarded lawyers in Jacksonville history, wrote us in August.
Coxe is not alone in his support for Cofer, who says he’s gotten some “very good feedback” since August, when the idea of him running became a possibility.
While he had to be careful until he retired, people wanted to donate, so Cofer does not anticipate financing being a problem.
As well, he understands the need for reform, especially in areas like “children being brought into adult court,” especially nonviolent and younger juveniles.
“We’ve got to be careful of not letting certain misconduct get on the record,” Cofer said, presenting a “burden” for a youthful offender for the rest of his or her life.
To accomplish that, it takes more than a “news conference.”
It takes bringing in stakeholders and people affected, building consensus, and finding “solutions within the system.”
He’s done it before. As assistant public defender, former Sheriff John Rutherford was the director of the jail system and there were a lot of nonviolent misdemeanor offenders in jail, who had mental health issues.
“We came up with a diversionary program,” and created a receiving facility where they could get the help they needed.
The model, Cofer said, has “worked well for over 20 years.”
Cofer told us in August that his retirement would be a necessary precondition to his running. He was true to his word.
He wouldn’t have gotten into this race if he didn’t know in his heart that he needed to be there. His credibility in the community is unmatched. And he looks to bring that to the public defender office.
