People v. Cole

Circuit court entered an order of adjudication of direct civil contempt against Public Defender (PD), and sanctioned her $250 per day until PD purged herself of contempt or was otherwise discharged by due process of law. PD refused appointment of a Defendant on basis on a potential conflict of interest, in that 4 of that Defendant's codefendants were charged with the same offense, and 9 of the codefendants were also represented by PD's office. Office of PD is not a single entity for purposes of conflict of interest analysis, and is not a "law firm". PD, as supervisor of assistant PDs, is not the appointed counsel to all defendants the PD's office represents. Court took adequate steps to ascertain that risk of conflict was too remote to warrant separate counsel, and did not abuse its discretion in finding PD in direct civil contempt. Order of contempt and sanctions vacated, as contempt was purely formal, and motivation was solely to permit appeal. (KARMEIER, FREEMAN, KILBRIDE, GARMAN, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)