Head of legal program gets heat for urging lawyers to attend $2,000 Democratic fundraiser (2024)

When Erie County residents get charged with major crimes and don’t have the money to pay for their own lawyer, private practice attorneys who contract with the independently run Assigned Counsel Program are tapped defend them.The head of that program has come under fire for encouraging all lawyers involved to either attend a $2,000-per-ticket fundraiser on Friday for Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner or mail checks to her house so she can bring them.

Chief Defender Michelle Parker sent an email to all lawyers with the Assigned Counsel Program last month urging them to start “working the levers of the political system” to push back against an effort by County Executive Mark Poloncarz to create a separate, county-run Public Defender’s Office.

Given the potential for such an office to dismantle the Assigned Counsel Program, run by the Erie County Bar Association, Parker said it was important for lawyers to get face time with Democratic leaders in the majority.

She followed up with an email to the lawyers on Sunday asking that those who cannot attend the luncheon event consider drafting a check to the Erie County Democratic Committee and mailing it to her.

“I will bring whatever donations come in with me to the event,” she said. “Old-fashioned bundling.”

Republican county legislators said they were offended and outraged by Parker’s partisan “money talks” approach to the issue and sent a letter calling for her resignation to Rowan Wilson, chief judge of the state Court of Appeals and chairman of the board of directors for the New York State Office of Indigent Legal Services.

“This is quite literally pay-to-play,” said Republican legislator Lindsay Lorigo of West Seneca.

Republican legislators said it was wrong for Parker, who runs the organization and has ultimate decision-making authority, to ask for political donations on behalf of the Democratic chairman, and that she abused her authority by using the assigned counsel program list as the basis for her email message to recipients.

Parker responded that she never has, and never will, play any role in how indigent cases are assigned to lawyers. Decisions on how lawyers are assigned cases follow a set of practical considerations that have nothing to do with politics. As it stands, she said, there aren’t enough lawyers to handle the existing workload.

“I feel like we are operating at a shortage,” she said. “In the 3½ years that I’ve served, there has not been a single case that I have assigned. There is an assignment specialist who handles that.”

Parker also said the donations were purely voluntary, that she did not expect everyone would want to donate but thought it a good way to get face time with Democrats who are often key decision-makers in Erie County and hold the majority in the Erie County Legislature.

“I thought it would be a good place to be visible and to be seen,” she said.

Republican legislators held a press conference Monday, announcing that they had sent a letter to Parker and Judge Wilson demanding her immediate resignation, faulting her for using the Assigned Counsel Program attorney list to solicit donations for a political party and “coercing” members to report their contributions to her.

That conflicts with the policies set forth by the Indigent Legal Services Board, they said, quoting from the board’s comments that the program “must remain insulated from conflicts of interest, political influence and other outside pressures.”

“These actions are a direct and clear violation of the rules set by the Indigent Legal Services Board, compromising the integrity not only of the chief defender, Michelle Parker, but the entire Assigned Counsel Program,” Lorigo said.

Minority Leader John Mills, R-Orchard Park, pointed to the ticket costs for the fundraiser, which range from $2,000 to $5,000.

“That’s outrageous and I can’t believe the citizens of this county would put up with this,” Mills said.

Parker said her desire to have lawyers circulate and be “in the room” when decisions are made regarding the Assigned Counsel Program reflects nonpartisan objectives of advocating for the value of the program.

Poloncarz’s plan to create a Public Defender’s Office, Parker said, does not accurately account for the cost-effectiveness of the existing public defense system, which she said is cheaper than that of neighboring Monroe County, given the size of the population.

Republicans have expressed skepticism with a Public Defender’s Office, Parker said, but since they are in the minority, lobbying needs to be done among Democrats.

She pointed out that the emails she sent came from her personal email account and were written when she was on vacation or over the weekend. No program funds are being spent on the fundraiser. These are not legal violations, she said, and she does not believe she is at risk of being removed from her position.

Legislators said that Parker and her lawyers have the ability to be heard in a hearing before the County Legislature and other forms of outreach.

Parker said her recommendation of contributions to the Democratic Party chairman are one form of lobbying and that she and other lawyers expect to participate in others. She is also recommending that lawyers in the program create their own nonpartisan political action committee to support Legislature candidates who favor maintaining the Assigned Counsel Program.

Zellner said Parker’s actions have nothing to do with him.

“The email solicitation in question was conducted by Ms. Parker with no involvement by me or the Erie County Democratic Party,” he said in a statement. “The ethics of her actions are for others to assess.”