Havre public defender office receives Governor's Award

The Havre Office of Public Defender received the 2016 Governor's Award for Excellence from Gov. Steve Bullock himself Monday at a ceremony at the Great Northern Hotel in Helena.

Led by Regional Deputy Public Defender Kaydee Snipes Ruiz in Havre, Region 6 Office of the State Public Defender is one of 11 in the state.

"On behalf of my team, I am very excited about this award. My whole Region 6 team, attorneys and support staff alike, has been working vigorously to make our representation of the indigent populations of the (area) streamlined, successful, and protective," Ruiz said.

Defendants in Region 6, which includes a smaller Glasgow office, are defended by Ruiz and attorneys Karen Alley, recent add-on Claire Lettow and Casey Moore, who works out of the office in Glasgow. Region 6 stretches west to Chester, south to Fort Benton and east to Glasgow.

"Our area is huge. We're approximately the size of West Virginia," Ruiz said in an interview earlier this year.

The region is not only large, but has been going through a caseload "growth spurt," as Ruiz calls it.

"Though we don't have our final fiscal year numbers yet, we are looking at approximately an 18 (percent) caseload increase for this past fiscal year in our Region 6 Office," she said. "My team has risen to the challenge."

Ruiz elaborated on the increase in cases.

She said the Region 6 Office of Public Defender had 1,200 cases in the fiscal year of 2012, and by fiscal year 2015, that caseload had risen to 1,323. From July 2015 to January 2016, only halfway through fiscal year 2016, Ruiz said 1,000 new cases had already been filed.

The major causes for the cases are drugs and alcohol - people who are chemically-dependent or mentally ill, Ruiz said.

"We see a lot of thefts that are alcohol or drug-related," she said.

Ruiz said poverty is another contributor to the high caseload.

Compared to the rest of the state, she said, the region is disproportionately impoverished and lacking in opportunity.

"Due to the correlation, I'm not surprised by the crime. ... Almost every time you go to Hill County District Court, the public defender's office, in some capacity, is representing most of the clients," she said. "And that's not the case in other regions across Montana."

Ruiz started practicing law on the other side. She interned at various prosecutor's offices. Then she moved to private practice criminal defense and worked at Lorang Law before ending up as a public defender. For Ruiz, law work comes down to one thing.

"Whatever side you're on, it's always about helping people," she said. "That's what I fell in love with."

She also has an ideological reason for her chosen profession.

"I'm also a big proponent of the Constitution. I believe everyone has a right to a fair trial. I believe in justice," she said. "Whether they're poor or rich, they should be able to have a good attorney."