OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Indigent Defense System plans to open a satellite office in Lawton if the Legislature appropriates sufficient funding, OIDS Executive Director Tim Laughlin confirmed Tuesday.
The Lawton attorney who provides indigent defense services in Comanche, Stephens, Cotton and Jefferson counties did not offer to renew the contract with OIDS for Fiscal Year 2022, which starts July 1.
OIDS advertised the position “and encouraged attorneys to bid” for the job, Laughlin said.
One bid was received: $750,000. “We realized we could open an office for about the same price,” he said.
The OIDS board rejected the bid and advertised the post again. The board received a $50,000 bid for Cotton and Jefferson counties, and awarded that contract to Toni Himes Capra, the town attorney for Medicine Park, Laughlin said.
That left Comanche and Stephens counties. One bid was received, $285,000 for Stephens County; the OIDS board opted to accept it and awarded the contract on April 16, he said.
“At this point we’re asking the Legislature to allow us to open a satellite office in Lawton, to cover Comanche County,” Laughlin said.
He was cautiously optimistic. “We’ve met with Rep. Rande Worthen and Sen. John Michael Montgomery, and we hope they’ll help us with this.” Additionally, Comanche County District Attorney
Fred Smith supported the proposal, Laughlin said.
OIDS wants $700,000 to establish an office in Lawton that would be staffed with six attorneys and a secretary, he said.
“The Supreme Court has said that poor people have to have lawyers,” Laughlin noted.
Hiring lawyers right now is “tough,” he said. OIDS, with a smaller bank account, is competing against the federal government and Indian tribes who are hiring attorneys to cope with the flood of state court convictions that have been vacated and picked up in federal and tribal courts because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma last July.
The Legislature’s regular session must conclude by 5 p.m. Friday, May 28, the state Constitution decrees.