If anyone sees my Public Defender and/or his assistant, please forward this message. 8/6/11

I have a jury trial scheduled for August 16, 2011 and I haven’t spoken with my public defender, Bryan Barrett about how he is going to prepare for trial. His assistant, Justin Kerr is handling my case because Mr. Barrett is out of town due to a family emergency and won’t be back until next week at the earliest. Mr. Kerr, who is not a lawyer, is handling my case, which is concerning because I have a constitutional right to be represented by a lawyer; not a legal assistant. What’s even more concerning is how Bryan Barrett and Justin Kerr have waived many of my rights without any concern for my defense and they refuse to subpoena relevant information pertaining to my case. For example Prosecutor Negangard and the Court have made several references to Dr. Edward J. Connor as well as his finding and opinions. Judge Sally Blankenship referenced Dr. Connor’s child custody evaluation in her bond order that set my bond at $100,000 cash and $500,000 surety. In fact, the bases of my criminal charges revolve around Dr. Connor’s controversial case file, but Bryan Barrett and Justine Kerr have refused to subpoena information and depose witnesses. They won’t file a motion to dismiss or a motion for a special prosecutor. I can’t even get in touch with them to make sure they file the paperwork to ensure that I can wear a suit and tie before the jury instead of my county orange. They didn’t even attempt to contact the Dearborn County Prosecutor in order to get a copy of the prosecution’s 1368 pages of evidence against me until Wednesday August 3, 2011; just 2 weeks before my jury trial.

Bryan Barrett left a non-attorney in charge of preparing my defense. Justin Kerr can’t even meet with me in the Dearborn County Jail because he isn’t a lawyer. He can’t subpoena information or file motions and Kerr isn’t even sure when Barrett will be available, so Kerr just told me that subpoenas and motions weren’t necessary. This is coming from a man who didn’t know that a defendant may not be detained in jail on a charge, without a trial for more than 6 months. (exceptions to the rule are court congestion, continuances filed by the defendant, etc…). This is the same guy who is waiving appealable issues because he determined that some motions weren’t worth filing. Justin Kerr isn’t basing his decisions on law; he’s basing them on time. When I told him that Barrett hadn’t even begun to work on my case, Kerr stated they talked about my case as far back as a “couple months” ago. Barrett was appointed as my public defender less than a month and a half ago.

The efforts of my defense resemble that of a 10^th grader, who is reading the Cliff’s Notes on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, just a period before he has to give an oral presentation in front of his English literature class. I can tell you from experience that it never works. I’m using this post to help reach my legal team and also to publicly document my concern, in the case they are more unprepared than expected. So if you read this Bryan Barrett and Justin Kerr, If you do nothing else in this case please just do the following two things before trial:1. Subpoena the case file from the child custody evaluation report that was completed by Dr. Edward J. Connor on August 29, 2007 and; 2. File the appropriate paperwork so I can appear in front of the jury in a professional looking suit rather than looking like a convict in my county orange. If you do those two things, I will be better prepared to handle my case in the event you should crash and burn because you waited until the last minute to prepare for a case consisting of a few thousand documents.

So if you see Justin Kerr or Bryan Barrett, please relay my message. Tell them to contact my mother with a time that I can call them or with a date that they will come and meet with me to help prepare for trial, hopefully before the day of the trial. It is impossible to prepare a defense against charges that reach back 4 and 1/2 years without even talking to the defendant. Since my mother received an email this morning saying that Justin Kerr would not be contacting her and the Rushville Public Defender’s Office will not pick up when they see I’m calling from jail (I’m not calling collect), and Justin Kerr will not pick up his cell when I call, I’m not sure how we are going to communicate. Here is a copy of the email.

Dear Sue,

I regretfully inform you that I will no longer be available to speak to you regarding Dan's case. The reason I have made this decision is directly related to your desire to post substantive portions of previous conversations (between you and I ) that took place earlier this week. The rules of professional conduct do not require any attorney or anyone working with an attorney to talk with family members when the defendant (or client) is no longer a minor child. Common courtesy is the sole reason I was willing to accept phone calls and emails from you while Dan's case was pending before the trial court. As I have previously stated, Mr. Barrett and I are continuing to review this case, the files contained therein, and all possible defenses in this cause. Finally, we will be prepared to try this matter on August 16th, 2011, as ordered by Honorable Special Judge Brian D. Hill.

Thank you in advance for your kind understanding and cooperation in this matter.

Justin

Thanks to everyone for their support. You can contact the Brewington family at contactdanbrewington@gmail.com