Public defender fees in the Michael Rodrigues rape trial will
cost San Benito County taxpayers $148,000, according to figures
provided by the County Administration Office.
Public defender fees in the Michael Rodrigues rape trial will cost San Benito County taxpayers $148,000, according to figures provided by the County Administration Office.
Rodrigues, the former San Benito County sheriff’s sergeant, has been convicted and sentenced for raping three women. With the sentencing Nov. 20, he faces a prison term of 60 years to life. Rodrigues had been on trial for the rape allegations that surfaced with a December 2007 grand jury indictment against him.
Rodrigues at the time stated he could not afford his defense and requested a public defender. But the contracted public defender’s office called for a conflict of interest, leading to one of the alternatives, Art Cantu, being hired on as the defense attorney.
For most cases, the county contracts with Gregory LaForge’s law office at an annual cost of about $360,000. The county’s entire budget for public defender costs this fiscal year – including conflict attorneys such as Cantu – came to $928,000.
The Rodrigues case included $109,283 for investigative services from Dietz and Associates; $34,560 for attorney fees; and $3,999 for forensic analysis done by Temecula-based Martinelli and Associates, said Catherine Shaw, a management analyst for the county.
Cantu noted how the work, however, included “a year and a half of investigation that originally had 37 witnesses for the prosecution.” He said the legal cost was “probably on the low end” for a “case of that magnitude.”
He pointed out that the investigator’s negotiated price was “about half of what they typically charge in the market.”
“That’s where the lion’s share of the work is being done,” Cantu said.
For now, the county is liable for the costs. Prosecutor Patrick Palacios during the sentence hearing, though, asserted that the county would pursue the legal costs from Rodrigues while contending the defendant had the ability to fund his defense.
