FAYETTEVILLE -- Lawyers for a judge in Benton County filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss a federal lawsuit that claims defendants should have an attorney appointed to represent them at first appearance and bond hearings.
The motion to dismiss argues judges have sovereign immunity and defendants have no constitutional right to a lawyer at that point in the proceedings.
The federal lawsuit filed earlier this month claims not appointing a lawyer to represent people who can't afford to hire one in the earliest stages of a criminal case is a violation of their constitutional rights. The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville by Doug Norwood and Alison Lee on behalf of Abigail Farella and Logan Murphy. The lawsuit seeks class action certification.
The lawsuit argues Farella and Murphy were both arrested on felony charges and given bail hearings before District Judge A.J. Anglin. Both were found to be indigent but didn't have attorneys appointed to represent them at their bail hearings.
Indigent means a person doesn't have sufficient income to afford a lawyer for defense in a criminal case. If the court finds a person indigent, it must appoint a public defender or other attorney to represent him. At dispute is when in the process the defender must be appointed.
All three of the claims raised by the plaintiffs should be dismissed according to federal rules of procedure because they cannot show that they have a constitutional right to counsel at a bail hearing so they have failed to state a claim for relief, according to lawyers for Anglin, who is represented by the Arkansas Attorney General's Office.
"To begin, the bail hearings are not the 'initiation of adversarial judicial proceedings' like an indictment, information or arraignment that triggers plaintiffs' right to counsel," according to the brief.
Anglin determines probable cause and sets bail amounts for plaintiffs during the bail hearing, according to the motion.
Thus, the bail hearings were not sufficiently adversarial and were more administrative, according to the motion. The brief also argues that the defendants were actually appointed public defenders by Anglin at their hearings.
The motion, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, also contends the lawsuit fails to state a valid claim and that Anglin has not been properly served with the lawsuit.
The brief also argues the federal court should abstain from hearing the case and dismiss the lawsuit because there are ongoing criminal cases against the plaintiffs and the state should be left free from federal interference to perform its separate functions.
In an affidavit, Anglin said he conducted the bond hearings in question in accordance with the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. Anglin said he determined that probable cause existed for the arrests of Farella and Murphy, he set bonds and appointed public defenders after finding them indigent.
Anglin said the bail hearings are done at the Benton County Jail without prosecutors, public defenders or defense attorneys present.
The motion to dismiss also contends the lawsuit names Benton County District Court, Division 4, which is located in Gentry, while Anglin presides over District 3, which is in Siloam Springs.
The class, if certified, would include all indigent individuals who have appeared or will appear before Anglin for a bail hearing and who have been or will be denied the right to counsel at bail hearings, according to the lawsuit.