Defendants in Seattle Municipal Court left without attorneys for weeks
Apr 9, 2025, 3:00 PM
Rows of prison cells. (Photo courtesy of photographer Ted via Flickr)
(Photo courtesy of photographer Ted via Flickr)
At least 15 defendants in Seattle Municipal Court have gone weeks without being assigned an attorney over the past year, according to The Seattle Times.
In one case, a man who allegedly pulled a knife on someone and threatened to cut their throat while dressed as a wizard was released after waiting two weeks in jail following his arraignment. No lawyer was assigned, and the oversight was only discovered at his pretrial hearing.
According to The Seattle Times, the Department of Public Defense’s policy requires attorneys to visit new clients within one day of their arraignment to strategize and possibly negotiate their release.
“All the things that we do between court hearings, that person wasn’t able to do,” Katie Hurley, special counsel for criminal policy and practice at the department, told The Seattle Times.
A spokesperson for Seattle Municipal Court told The Times that there have been cases in which defendants were deemed eligible for public defense but did not receive representation—sometimes due to data entry errors and other times because of what he described as “a business process issue.”
KIRO Newsradio has reached out to Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison for comment.
