Justice Center commentary

The Cuyahoga County Justice Center, where David Strollo spent more than a month in jail earlier this year and never heard from his court-appointed attorney.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County court-appointed attorney who did not contact his jailed client for 36 days was reprimanded last month by Common Pleas Court Administrative Judge John J. Russo.

Russo said he delivered the reprimand in a phone conversation with attorney Patrick Leary, and warned Leary that his "lack of representation" could result in him losing future court-appointed cases.

"I believe as the administrative judge I was pretty firm with him that I was disappointed in the way he handled the case," Russo said in an interview with cleveland.com.

Russo said he also met with a group of defense attorneys and the Public Defender's Office to reiterate the court's expectations for court-appointed attorneys and public defenders after he heard about Leary's conduct.

Cleveland.com discovered Leary's jailed client, David Strollo, as part of research for Impact 2016: Justice For All, a series examining inequities in Cuyahoga County's bail system and efforts to reform the system.

Strollo was arrested Aug. 25 on a drug-possession charge, a fifth-degree felony, and was jailed until Oct. 3 because he could not afford bail set at $5,000. During that time, Strollo told cleveland.com, he called Leary every day, sometimes six times a day, but his calls and messages went unanswered.

Leary said in a phone interview that he regrets the way he handled Strollo's case, but said his schedule prevented him from being more attentive. He recalled receiving a voicemail from Strollo while he was in jail, and said that Strollo could have made additional attempts to contact him.

"If I could take back the hands of time and see Mr. Strollo I would have done so," Leary said. "Unfortunately at that time my schedule was pretty hectic."

The right to counsel is a pillar of the U.S. justice system and the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution requires the public to provide lawyers for federal and felony defendants who can't afford to hire their own.

Local and state court rules and codes of conduct also emphasize the importance of the right to counsel.

The common pleas court's guidelines encourage defense attorneys to contact the prosecutor's office "immediately" following the first court hearing and "establish communication as soon as possible by phone or in person" with the defendant.

Leary said he contacted the prosecutor's office for the first time after he missed the first case management conference on Sept. 14 and learned the case was scheduled to go before the grand jury on Sept. 16.

"At that point I knew the process would take place, and he would be arraigned in a day or two, and I could have appeared at his arraignment," Leary said.

Strollo's arraignment came Oct. 3. Leary was not there. Strollo pleaded not guilty and told the arraignment room judge about Leary's absence. The judge reassigned his case to another attorney.

A spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office said the indictment took longer than the usual 12 days for jailed defendants.

"Basically this was a case that didn't get to push forward as fast as we would like," said Director of Communications and Public Policy Joe Frolik.

Noted Northeast Ohio civil rights attorney Terry Gilbert said in an interview that an attorney failing to contact a jailed client for weeks is "reprehensible conduct."

Attorneys appointed to represent indigent defendants are paid a small fee for their services and sometimes take on large caseloads to make ends meet, Gilbert said, speaking in general terms as he did not know which attorney cleveland.com was writing about.

"A lawyer is supposed to zealously represent his or her client, and when a matter of liberty from jail could be easily addressed, the failure to do so by a lawyer is reprehensible conduct in my opinion," Gilbert said.

Gilbert stressed, however, that such conduct is not normal.

"I don't think that's a common problem," he said. "That's the outer edges of indifference. There are a lot of decent lawyers in the assignment system. You have one case that seems to be really outlying, and I want to make that clear."