Former defendant suing Grant County

EPHRATA - A former defendant is suing Grant County, three former commissioners and a public defender claiming his attorney was ineffective.

Alexander N. Jones, and his parents, Ken Jones and Jo Anne Jones, filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court claiming Jones' Sixth Amendment rights were violated and his attorney and the former commissioners were negligent. Alexander Jones filed the lawsuit against the state, the county, former Commissioners LeRoy Allison, Tim Snead and Deborah Moore and his former attorney Doug Anderson.

The case was filed in Chelan County Superior Court and US District Court, according to court records.

The case revolves around a charge of first degree child molestation Jones faced when he was 12 years old in 2004, according to the Chelan County complaint. At the time, Anderson was contracted by the county to provide legal services in Grant County Superior Court's legal division.

"The Grant County resolutions and the contract with Mr. Anderson provided no meaningful limits on case load and delegated decisions regarding case load to Mr. Anderson," stated George Ahrend, the Jones's attorney. "The resolutions permitted, and the contract provided for, payment of a fixed fee to Mr. Anderson. He received the same amount of money no matter how much public defense work he performed, and no matter how well he performed it."

The problems with the system allegedly were well known at the time, according to the complaint. Ahrend pointed to several publications starting in 1990.

Anderson had 240 juvenile offender cases, 30 to 40 active dependency cases, 160 to 170 active truancy cases and an unspecified number of private cases, according to court records. He was paid $162,000 a year and had to pay for investigators and experts from the money."For its part, Grant County and the defendant county commissioners had knowledge of the foregoing problems with the contract based on the suspension and disbarment of two other public defenders in 2003 and 2004, who had similar contracts," according to the complaint.

When Alexander Jones was charged in 2004, Anderson was appointed to represent him, according to the complaint. His attorney reportedly met with Alexander Jones once between the time the charges were filed on July 2, 2004 and his arraignment on August 2, 2004. The meeting allegedly lasted five minutes, and Alexander Jones denied the charges.

Anderson reportedly met with Alexander Jones for 10 minutes during his arraignment, according to the complaint. Anderson and Alex Jones allegedly didn't speak for the month following. The attorney reportedly was present at the pretrial conference on Sept. 14, 2004.

Anderson allegedly received a plea bargain offer from the prosecutor the next day, according to the complaint. The attorney reportedly met with the Joneses two days later for 10 minutes, and urged them to "take the deal."

"Mr. Anderson did not review the police report with Alex Jones or his parents and he did not have a copy of the statement on plea of guilty. He did not inform Alex Jones or his parents of the nature of the charges against him," according to the complaint. "Her convinces Alex Jones' parents that the plea bargain was a good 'deal' by giving them incomplete and inaccurate information about the nature and consequences of the plea. Mr. Anderson did not receive any information suggesting that Alex Jones was guilty of the charges against him during this meeting."

Alex Jones entered the guilty plea on Sept. 22, 2004. After learning the conviction would follow Alex Jones as an adult, and require him to notify the school, his parents retained private attorneys to withdraw the guilty plea.

The case went to the Washington State Supreme Court, which ruled Anderson's representation was inadequate, according to the court's ruling. The judges pointed to Anderson's failure to interview potential witnesses, misinforming him of the consequences of the conviction and not explaining the nature of the charges.

The system changed in Grant County, according to the ruling.

Neither Ahrend nor Anderson was available for comment.

Commissioner Richard Stevens wasn't able to add additional comments, since it was pending litigation, he said.