A suspect accused of opening fire inside the District 5 police station appeared in Milwaukee County Court on Tuesday without an attorney.Darreon Parker-Bell, 23, of Milwaukee, was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and seven felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon.He was expected to enter a plea but as deputies brought him into the courtroom, there was no public defender assigned to his case.”Through a series of extremely unfortunate and frankly embarrassing mistakes on our part, we did not catch that this case was set for arraignment this morning,” Wisconsin Public Defender Regional Attorney Manager Thomas Reed said.The error came four days after Milwaukee police released edited videos of the lobby shooting.Milwaukee County and Wisconsin are experiencing a public defender crisis.Parker-Bell’s arraignment was one of more than 200 cases in the county that are delayed daily because of the shortage.”I think the shortage of lawyers is tied to several things,” Reed said. “The backlogs tie up a lot of lawyer power and the departure of some of the people taking the cases contribute to that.”After a mid-morning scramble in front of Parker-Bell’s family, his original public defender was now back on the case.The court ended up postponing the arraignment another two days. It is now scheduled for Thursday morning.Parker-Bell remains in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail on $500,000 cash bail.
A suspect accused of opening fire inside the District 5 police station appeared in Milwaukee County Court on Tuesday without an attorney.
Darreon Parker-Bell, 23, of Milwaukee, was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and seven felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon.
He was expected to enter a plea but as deputies brought him into the courtroom, there was no public defender assigned to his case.
“Through a series of extremely unfortunate and frankly embarrassing mistakes on our part, we did not catch that this case was set for arraignment this morning,” Wisconsin Public Defender Regional Attorney Manager Thomas Reed said.
The error came four days after Milwaukee police released edited videos of the lobby shooting.
Milwaukee County and Wisconsin are experiencing a public defender crisis.
Parker-Bell’s arraignment was one of more than 200 cases in the county that are delayed daily because of the shortage.
“I think the shortage of lawyers is tied to several things,” Reed said. “The backlogs tie up a lot of lawyer power and the departure of some of the people taking the cases contribute to that.”
After a mid-morning scramble in front of Parker-Bell’s family, his original public defender was now back on the case.
The court ended up postponing the arraignment another two days.
It is now scheduled for Thursday morning.
Parker-Bell remains in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail on $500,000 cash bail.
