Just a few months after we launched Unfair Park, we profiled Dallas public defender Mike Howard, then running the tell-all site Wretched of the Earth, on which he'd write about counseling the indigent on the county's dime. But Howard yesterday sent out a virtual change-of-address notice: He has left the embattled Dallas County Public Defender's Office and hung out his own shingle with David Woodruff, also a former PD. They've also started a new blog, and in one entry, Howard explains his reasons for leaving the Dallas County Public Defender. Toward the end of a lengthy list of problems, he writes:
We resigned because we knew we couldn’t give all our clients the representation they deserved with the way the office was headed. And we weren’t alone. In the past month or so five attorneys have resigned.Sooner or later, Dallas County will update its Web site: Two months after John Wiley Price forced his resignation, Brad Lollar's still pictured as the county's chief public defender. --Robert Wilonsky
