Well, I could have done a better job on this, like looked at the exact rules which were broken and fit the facts into these things, and I could have written more about what "reasonable defense" constitutes, according to the law, but there is a chance to appeal, if the Bar doesn't find for me, and I can make a point about case law and what is "reasonable defense" if they don't agree. I just need to get this stuff out, so I'm sending it "as is", and although I don't have to copy Wellbaum and Cassel on my complaint, because the Bar gives them copies after they receive it, I'm giving them a head start on their own defense, and every opportunity to be fair to them in a way they were never fair with me and my son. My complaint is below:
Complaint to Washington State Bar and American Bar Association
Regarding Public Defenders Paul Cassel and Jeanne Wellbaum:
The purpose of this complaint is to report two public defenders within the Wenatchee, Washington justice system, who failed to provide reasonable defense and also who admitted to, and demonstrated, conflicts of interest, who later attempted to intimidate me to drop my intention of reporting them.
As a result of their failure to provide reasonable representation, my case was irreversibly prejudiced and resulted in the separation of mother and child from a relationship which was not harmful or at risk to the child.
Public defenders Cassel and Wellbaum contributed to these things by failing to provide even the rudimental elements of a sound defense--failing to notify mother of conflicts of interest, of motions they filed, of communications without the consent of the mother; failing to obtain evidence which was readily available and proved the mother’s defense was strong when it was crucial to the case; failing to tell mother when their computers were down and they weren’t receiving mother’s emails; and failure to timely communication with mother, not letting the mother know about hearing times and dates which resulted in the failure of the mother to appear and to lose the hearing, and never taking time to go over the facts of the case with the mother.
This complaint will be broken down into two parts, to include the specific facts and allegations against the attorneys on an individual basis.
Facts and History For Allegations Against P.D. Paul Cassel:
I. Background History
My case involved the dependency of my son. I was new to a small town in Wenatchee, WA, which has a history justice system failures. The professionals in the town ignored basic rules of HIPPA and gossip took precedence over facts. After I angered medical professionals by threatening to sue for defamation, refusal of standard of care, and HIPPA violations, my son and I were then severely injured in a traumatic childbirth which the medical professionals in Wenatchee tried to cover up as a “normal spontaneous delivery”. After trying to obtain diagnostics to prove our injuries, I was forced to go out of the area to obtain diagnostics and as soon as Wenatchee would find out, they tried to influence the treatment of my care, by writing slanderous letters and making calls about me. After they found out I was seeking legal representation for damages on behalf of myself and my son, in Seattle, they began making false allegations to CPS, claiming that I was drug seeking and mentally ill and put my son at risk. This distracted me from getting an attorney for medical malpractice and when they succeeded in having my son removed from me I no longer had authority to file a lawsuit on his behalf or even gather further medical evidence and documentation of his injuries. Medical professionals in Wenatchee withheld medical records from me that proved injuries, which they knew they had and which they knew helped my case. When my son was taken from me, I tried to secure private representation but couldn’t afford it. When I hired one private attorney who was paid for by family, this lawyer discussed my case, without my consent, with one of the public defenders in the Wenatchee area and then told me last minute that I should represent myself “pro se”, and when I protested, he told me to have this public defender, Paul Cassel, represent me. My family, who claimed everything should be “fine” and didn’t understand the necessity of private representation in such a matter, withdrew funding for a private attorney and told me to go with the public defense, who had already been communicating with my private attorney. I protested, but I couldn’t afford a private attorney. Judge Hotchkiss appointed his former law partner, Paul Cassel, as my counsel, and I hadn’t been made aware of the potential conflict of interest until later. Prior to being elected as Judge, Hotchkiss had worked with Cassel as partner at a small private law firm in the area. This presented a problem later, as you will see.
After Cassel took my case, the following things happened, which severely prejudiced my case, and which are proof I did not receive “reasonable defense”. Under Washington law, and case law, it is not sufficient to be given any kind of public defense--it must be “reasonable” defense and if it fails to meet these basic standards, the attorney can be reported for negligence.
II. Allegations.
1. I had prior communication with Cassel, before his representation of me, when I called him on behalf of clients he had. I met clients he was representing in the criminal justice system, who had charges brought against them by the state and feds, through doing a project for a class I took in Juvenile Justice. They said they couldn’t get ahold of their lawyer and that he’d done nothing for their case, and after I found out how long it had been since they talked to him, I called Cassel’s office, introduced myself, and said his clients were waiting for him to get in touch with them.
2. The next time I heard about Cassel, it was by finding out he had discussed me and my case with a private attorney I had retained with the financial assistance of my family. I had never released my attorney to discuss my case with another attorney and he knew that I didn’t want a public defender because of prejudice in that town against me. Cassel, on his part, had no authorization from me to discuss me or my case and my private attorney never told him he obtained my consent. It was the two of THEM who decided, after talking, that I should represent myself “pro se” or with public defense, and they told me this, last minute, one day before the first hearing.
3. I kept asking him to mail me copies of motions and things he planned to write, and he didn't. I couldn't open up his documents on the computer I was at, and told him so, and because he didn't mail anything, I had no way of knowing what was going on. Not once, in his representation of me, was I able to preview a motion or discuss what was happening next.
4. The second thing I can prove, is that he did not consult with me prior to making some of his motions and arguments, and he did not spend more than 15 minutes, EVER, discussing my case. Paul Cassel never sat down with me, or called me up to talk about the facts of my case for an hour. He didn't even know what my potential defenses were, because he didn't know my case.
5. The third thing I can prove, is that he may have been more motivated to follow his own best interests than mine, in this case. Not only did he have Wenatchee people to live with, if he gave any consideration to anyone connected to my case, it wasn't ME, but my aunt Locklyn and mother. My aunt Locklyn had once WORKED for him. I think this could have come into play where I was asking for Change of Venue, to accomodoate my disabilies and allow for my son and I to be in visitation, when my mother and her side of the family didn't want my son to leave Wenatchee. They had already chosen my holy-roller aunt over me, simply because she was a holy-roller and that's what they think will 'save' my son's soul.
6. I sent email after email to Paul, after he was assigned to my case, and he didn't get back to me until I decided to blog about him. I couldn’t reach him.
7. The fourth thing I can prove, is that Cassel refused to obtain medical documentation I told him was available, which would prove I had injuries by Wenatchee medical professionals, and would go to show bad faith and motive for making false allegations about me, in anticipation of a civil lawsuit against them for malpractice. I had records in Wenatchee and Seattle, and I also went into a PCP in Whatcom County and obtained a note from the doctor, which requested change of venue to accomodate injuries from "childbirth" he wrote. I was 4 hours from Wenatchee and couldn’t travel by bus anymore because of worsening physical symptoms (I had a broken and displaced tailbone, herniated lower lumbar disc, cauda equina syndrome, and pelvic fractures, not to mention separated pubic bones and stomach muscles--all of these things resulted from a forced and bad epidural and then forced vaginal delivery of my son when these doctors had been told other OBGYNs said my pelvis was too narrow to deliver naturally. They had their hands inside of me and forced it, and I broke bones because of it, even when I begged them to call in a doctor to do a C-section because I knew something was wrong). I had X-rays, CT scans, and other diagnostics which proved these things, which I had to get from out of the area and which Wenatchee still tried to dismiss and write false chart notes about. The doctor in Whatcom county wrote a note for my defense, and Cassel AND the state, or "the department", all got copies of this note, and yet Cassel didn't even file it, try to contact the doctor for a more detailed letter, or do ANYTHING. I later found out, the Judge Hotchkiss never even SAW such a note and then Cassel tried to blow it off, claiming it was just a "little note".
8. Another thing I can prove, is that Cassel did not notify me about the time and date of the hearing he scheduled (unprepared) for Change of Venue. He didn't even tell me he'd filed a motion for it, and I never got to review it first. So he went to court, and I didn't show up because I didn't even KNOW about it. Because of his shoddy defense, where he had ZERO records obtained for evidence in my favor, I lost the chance for Change of Venue which would have not only accomodated my disabilities and allowed me and my son to visit eachother regularly, but I also lost the opportunity to have the case removed from Wenatchee, where all the prejudice started. There was absolutely NO WAY to get a "fair trial" in that town, after all the Judges and medical people, and social services had done. There were too many people involved and they were all friends, cronies, and interrelated.
9. Because of some of these things, which are so aggregious, it really does not make sense that Paul Cassel was EVER on my side, or working for ME. When I started writing about his swinger activities, he just became more hostile, but I didn't write about these things until after he was already proving to be a screw-up.
10. Cassel could have requested more time, or an abatement, to better prepare for my case, and he could have argued to the Judge that he did not yet have medical records which were needed for my case, but he didn't.
11. Another thing I can prove, is that the email service was disrupted between Cassel's office and me. One of his partners emailed me and said not to write but to call, because, he said, they were having a crash of their computers and were not getting emails from others. He said they could send email OUT, but were not getting emails from other people. I was told it had been going on for weeks, but that they hadn't realized until later. It sounded like the same thing that was happening to all my other friends who had email correspondence with me--we'd exchange emails and then their systems would either crash, or they quit getting email from people, or would send email and find it hadn't actually been sent out as they believed. I believe someone hacked and deliberately was attempting to disrupt communications between me and my public defender, if the P.D. was trying to help at all. What was odd though, was that Cassel's co-workers all confirmed this was happening, and that they'd had to call in a computer tech for the problem, but PAUL CASSEL tried to DENY it to me. WHY would he try t to deny this was happening? It worked IN our favor, to request more time from the judge, not against us. I thought this was odd. He kept lying to me, saying there had been no email problems whatsoever, even as they had hired a computer tech AND his coworkers were telling me differently. HE didn't know they were telling me differently though, because it was only after he lied to me, that I revealed I'd gotten the information from HIS own office.
12. Another thing I can prove, is that when I knew Paul was out to screw me, I fired him before he could do damage at the next hearing. Guess what happened? he refused to step down and Judge Hotchkiss told me he was NOT "allowing" me to fire Cassel, so he let Paul go ahead and screw me, and then, after I lost the hearing, the Judge said, with satisfaction, that NOW Cassel was released from representing me.
Both of them deliberately refused to allow me to fire my own counsel until my case was further prejudiced.
13. When I asked Cassel to write a Motion to Recuse the judge, based on evidence I had which showed the Judge to be someone who might take or offer bribes, and because of his treatment of my case, Cassel refused to recuse his buddy, his former partner from the law office. In return, the Judge later threatened me and told me if I didn’t drop any reports I made against Cassel, to the Bar, he would force me to go “pro se” despite my request for new public defender, one that would provide at least a “reasonable defense”.
14. Cassel wasted time in a hearing for my son, lashing out at ME in defense of his own behavior and putting me in a worse light before the court and the Judge, even claiming he wished to breach attorney-client privilege to try to damage ME. He did this after I filed over 70 pages of emails I had sent to Cassel, asking him to get back to me, and telling him I wasn’t able to open attachments on the computer I had to use (and I was out in the country and couldn’t get to another computer) so to please mail things to me.
Facts And History For Allegations Against P.D. Jeanne Wellbaum:
I. Background History
1. The Judge wouldn’t allow me to fire Cassel when I wanted, but let Cassel go after Cassel prejudiced my case further. I didn’t want Cassel representing me for the hearing but the Judge said he WAS going to represent me, and then after the hearing was over, and I’d lost, the Judge then said to Cassel that he was free to leave me. I didn’t know who my next counsel was for weeks after that, even though I called everyone. Two weeks before my next hearing, Jeanne Wellbaum said she was going to be my public defender. The first thing Wellbaum did was to announce, late, she was representing me, and that she couldn’t be reached for over a week, and would talk to me before the next hearing (which would have left her ONE week to familiarize herself with my case, talk to me, supposedly obtain evidence in my favor, and prepare a defense). Wellbaum showed, from the start, that she was not going to be zealous, reliable, or prepared.
II. Allegations.
2. I asked Wellbaum AND Cassel to send me my file. When Wellbaum became my counsel, Wellbaum refused to do this, claiming she hadn’t received it from Cassel. She never did send me my file or a copy of my file.
3. I tried to communicate with Wellbaum and over the phone she was rude and curt. She never went over the facts of my case with me.
4. Wellbaum held onto my case and case file, until she had received the most recent medical record about me from Whatcom County. But she wasn’t interested in helping me get Change of Venue. I asked her because I had not even been told when the hearing was and wanted a new hearing for it and she refused. So I was trying to get the file myself to see what was going on. Then, after Wellbaum received my medical record of the latest evaluation of injuries, she wrote she could not represent me because of “conflict of interest”. She said not to call her, email, or otherwise communicate with her. I was on my own for weeks. I asked her what exactly this “conflict of interest” was because the only thing new she’d learned about me was that I was dating a security guard who traveled and I’d named some other people I’d dated, and I wondered if she had dated the same person. Which may still be a possibility, but when I began to do the research on her, I discovered Wellbaum had a very serious conflict of interest: she had been a lawyer for the same law firm that represented all the clients who were liable for a medical malpractice lawsuit brought by me on behalf of myself and my son. It is a very small town, and I was extremely well-known because of the potential fall-out a lawsuit could cause certain medical professionals, and I was very vocal about my intent to sue. Wellbaum had known who I was and obtained my file and then my newest medical records, which were discovery for the Davis Arneil firm and their clients, and then after I said I was firing her, she announced there was a conflict of interest. Then, after I emailed her and told her she was in “big trouble” for obtaining my medical records when she had worked for, and was good friends with, Davis Arneil and their clients, she suddenly backtracked and claimed she didn’t have a conflict of interest afterall.
5. By the time she was claiming there was no conflict of interest, the next hearing was due. I told the Judge Ms. Wellbaum was not prepared to handle my case, and that from the beginning, she had delayed in contacting me for weeks, and then had allowed herself one week prior to a hearing, for preparation. I told him this was indicative of a problem, and then she had admitted to having a conflict of interest and “changed her mind” after I said I was reporting her to the Bar, for obtaining medical records when she knew or should have known it was wrong to take my case from the start.
The Judge told me he was not going to appoint me new representation because there was no “evidence” that either Cassel or Wellbaum had been negligent or had had conflicts of interest. The Judge had 70 pages of documentation that Cassel HAD been negligent, and wasn’t even aware he’d not received a note from a doctor about my injuries, which Cassel was supposed to present. The Judge admitted he’d not seen it. The Judge also did not ask for my submission of evidence against Wellbaum. It was simply small-town politics, where both lawyers had had conflicts of interest and had delayed and been negligent in my case and not obtained one shred of evidence in my favor, which I asked them to get.
The Judge then said I would not get a new public defender, even though I told him the point was not “any old defense” but “reasonable defense”. I was told I would go “pro se” or I could take these attorneys back. I knew I could not be pro se as I was tired and distressed by what had been done with my son and was not in a position to make a defense for myself. Under intimidation and threats, I took them back, and the Judge made me promise I was dropping my complaints against Cassel and Wellbaum. After I hung up, I realized it was wrong for me to agree, but it had been wrong for the Judge to coerce me in this way. He was doing favors for his friends. I wrote to everyone, telling them it had been a mistake and that I felt I had grounds for asking for a new public defender.
I sent email and tried calling, for almost one month, to find out who was even supposed to be representing me or not, as I didn’t even know which one I would be “firing”, or both? Of them? Because they switched back and forth. No one returned my calls or answered me about what position I was in.
Cassel refused to answer me. Wellbaum refused to answer me. The judge refused to answer me. For one month, I was ignored, until the date of the hearing. I was distressed that no one got back to me, and no one had sent me any discovery either. I didn’t have any copy of my case file.
The judge told me, at the beginning of that hearing, that I was on my own. No one bothered to tell me or confirm this before, and no one sent my file over either. I objected, and the Judge said I had to defend myself when I wasn’t even prepared. I objected several times, and then the Judge hung up on me. When I tried to call back to be let into the hearing, the clerk said she’d ask the Judge if I was allowed back. She said he told her, or emailed her, that they were “proceeding without Ms. Garrett”.
I had zero defense. I had no reliable public defender and my case was prejudiced because of them, and I had been told to go pro se on the spot, having no discovery or case file before me, and then I was hung up on and no one was present for my defense.
My final complaint against both Cassel and Wellbaum is that they failed to respond to me, at all, after I asked them to confirm who was supposedly my counsel and of my position.
Conclusion:
As a result of the negligence or lack of zealous representation by Cassel and Wellbaum, I missed hearings, was not given a copy of my case file or discovery prior to hearings, and with no representation and no advanced notice to prepare on my own, I lost hearings for Contested Sheltercare (because no one was there to defend me), which set the stage for me to lose at Fact Finding (because no one was there to defend me, I wasn’t given enough time to prepare, and I did not receive any discovery for my case until after the statute for filing for appeal had expired.)
Discovery which will prove some of what I’m saying, would include the audio CDs from the hearing, where I objected to going pro se, tried to fire my counsel when it was insufficient and get new representation, and was hung up on by a Judge and had a hearing proceed without me. There are also admissions, on record, that important evidence for my defense was withheld from the court by the state (and I didn’t know because I didn’t know what their discovery was), and admissions from the Judge that he didn’t receive certain important materials (but wouldn’t give a time extension or reverse his decision).
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I need my son back in my care, and I believe it is important to show how negligent counsel and prejudice has damaged my case, me, and my son. I’m including a character statement from a friend who has known me since I was 15 years old, and I’m also including a copy of my complaint to the ADA regarding discrimination against disabilities, for your reference. If his name is needed, he will be willing to stand up for me.
Sincerely,
Cameo Garrett
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