Tensions mark Hillsborough public defender campaigns

TAMPA — For a glimpse at the race to be Hillsborough County’s next public defender, look to the scene inside a packed banquet room this past spring in the Hotel Haya. Most in the crowd seemed interested in fireworks among the three candidates vying to be the county’s top prosecutor.

Rocky Brancato and Lisa McLean, who aim to work the other side of the courtroom, sat quietly at the end of the same table on stage. Amid a battery of questions geared mostly toward how best to deal with crime, the pair made dueling pitches for why they could best represent the county’s indigent defendants, and took some shots at each other.

“It will take her a full four-year term to learn what I’ve learned in 20 years,” said Brancato.

“We can keep looking backward, or we can look forward,” said McLean.

It has been 20 years since Hillsborough County last saw a campaign for public defender, who heads an office that employs 120 attorneys who provide legal representation to criminal defendants who can’t afford their own lawyers. Julianne Holt, who has held the seat since 1993, last year announced plans to retire.

As the two Democrats trudge toward an August election open to all Hillsborough County voters, theirs is a low-key yet bitter political battle. The office carries an annual salary of $212,562.

Brancato is Holt’s director of operations, effectively the second-in-command, who has been with the office two decades. He has her endorsement, and the support of other elected leaders, but trails McLean in fundraising.

McLean is a private defense lawyer and a 34-year veteran of Tampa’s legal scene, with experience as a prosecutor and public defender. She has drawn broad support from the legal community, including from two retired chief judges, with a campaign that promises change.

A career public defender

As a young lawyer, Brancato said, he was inclined toward becoming a prosecutor. He came from a military family. His father was a judge advocate general. But as he watched his first trials in Pensacola courtrooms, he was more impressed with the public defense lawyers and the acquittals they won in the face of long odds.

He turned down an offer to work for the state attorney, instead starting his career at the public defender’s office in Escambia County. In 2003, he moved to Tampa and began working for Holt.

He’s handled some of the office’s most difficult cases. He led the team that represented Kendrick Morris, the teenage boy known as the Bloomingdale Library rapist. He was also part of the trial team that persuaded a jury to reject the death penalty for Richard McTear, who was accused of tossing his girlfriend’s baby onto Interstate 275.

Brancato, 52, said he considered running to become a judge. But when Holt announced her retirement last year, he reconsidered.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.

He told the crowd at the Hotel Haya that nothing needs to change in the office. Nevertheless, there are some things he wants to do differently.

He wants to staff the office’s juvenile bureau with lawyers who specifically want to work those types of cases. The bureau currently serves as a training ground for new lawyers, but Brancato believes it takes a special kind of advocate to work with clients who are children. He also wants to appoint a specialist to handle juveniles who are charged as adults.

A seasoned defense lawyer

As she campaigns, McLean, 59, touts humble roots. A longtime Tampa resident, she was the first person in her family to attend college. She pursued law as a career at first with the notion of making money, believing her work would be largely transactional. But she found a calling to public service. She got her start as a legal intern for the late former State Attorney Bill James.

She became a public defender and gained early experience as a lawyer “in the trenches,” she said.

One case that looms in her memory involved a man who injured himself in a fall inside an apartment building. Desperate for help, he used a lighter to try to attract attention. It started a fire, which summoned firefighters, but also damaged the building. McLean represented him on an arson charge and won an acquittal.

She later moved to the other side of the courtroom, becoming a chief in the office of statewide prosecution, and then moved to private practice. She has run her own criminal defense firm since 2006.

McLean was at the public defender’s office when Holt took charge 1993. She credits her with bringing positive change. But as she campaigns to succeed her, she’s critical of many aspects of how the office is run. She wants attorneys to feel supported. She wants to reduce their caseloads. And she wants to bring in new technology.

Her ideas include harnessing artificial intelligence software to make it easier for attorneys to examine things like video evidence. She also wants to create an app for clients to more easily access their attorneys and case materials. She also wants to explore technology that allows defense lawyers to be notified if their client is in danger of violating probation.

“It’s not just technology for technology’s sake,” she said.

Criticisms and soured friendships

On the campaign trail, things have gotten testy. McLean’s supporters took note of Brancato’s comments at a recent Tea & Conversation event. McLean didn’t want to discuss it publicly. But Brancato now admits he may have gone too far when he told attendees that he and McLean were no longer friends.

The comment came as he expressed frustration with criticisms McLean has voiced about the office.

She has claimed that some defendants use the public defender’s services despite having enough money to hire their own lawyers. She has seen it as a defense lawyer, she said, when prospective clients tell her they’re considering going with the public defender. Such cases take away resources from those who really need it, she said.

“It’s an abuse of the system,” she said.

Brancato insists that isn’t true, that no public defender wants to represent someone who isn’t indigent.

McLean says the office culture is one of distrust. One example: She claims employees must undergo a psychiatric examination before promotions.

Brancato says that’s also not true. It’s a leadership development program, he said, not a mental exam.

Mclean speaks of high staff turnover, with many employees who leave for other public service jobs.

Brancato says turnover is no worse than at any public agency. He noted that 20 attorneys have recently returned to the public defender’s office after short stints elsewhere.

Lately Brancato has hit back with accusations of his own.

“Instead of telling people what she wants to do, she wants to trash the office,” Brancato said.

He has been critical of her technology proposals. He says there is no need for an app because the office already uses a software portal to share information with clients.

He has questioned whether McLean is adequately involved in the community volunteering.

“I’ve been much more focused on running a successful business that supports human beings and raising a family,” she said.

McLean denies she’s being critical of the office’s lawyers. Rather, she said, she’s being critical of the system in which they work.

“In my mind, I have done nothing but tell the truth,” she said. “And if I’m being critical of the office, I see that as part of my role in running for public defender and having the opportunity to point out to the community things I think can be done better.”

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