A.G. Gancarski
For an indication of the seismic change in the office of 4th Circuit Public Defender Charlie Cofer, look no further than his just-announced appearance at a late April panel.
The panel: “Better Justice Florida: A Forum on Criminal Justice Reform.”
Among the focuses of the Apr. 29 event at the Florida Coastal School of Law: Florida’s incarceration rate, which grew by 18 percent between 2005 and 2015 — a period when the national rate grew by just 3 percent.
The groups co-hosting the event: the Florida chapter of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
One cannot imagine a scenario in which Cofer’s predecessor, Matt Shirk, would have shared space with either of these groups.
Indeed, Shirk messaged in a different way during his campaign against Cofer, serving up the kind of right-wing red meat that one usually doesn’t see in a race for public defender.
Among the most glaring examples of that: Shirk asserting that former President Barack Obama had “deep ties to Islam” and was “comfortable with a certain level of Americans dying at the hands of Islamic terrorists.”
“What offends me is a president of the United States who spends more time playing golf than addressing the violence and mayhem in this country and around the world that is spiriling [sic] out of control,” Shirk added.
One can’t imagine Cofer wading into the morass of Presidential politics in his current role.
There may be another difference between Cofer and Shirk, who is still dealing with the backwash of his troubled tenure in office.
Shirk has agreed to a $2,500 fine and a reprimand for ethical lapses during his term as public defender.
Those issues boil down to hiring employees from the now-defunct Whisky River bar and partying down with them, including tomfoolery in the office.
That will likely be finalized at the April 21 meeting of the Florida Ethics Commission.
