When defense attorney Duane Cooper visited the Newton County Jail on Dec. 9, he waited for hours and never got to see his client.
Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland says the one-time event was a miscommunication.
Cooper asked that Copeland be charged for obstructing the client/attorney visit.
On Thursday, Newton County Prosecuting Attorney Jake Skouby announced that he had completed his investigation and there were no grounds for filing criminal charges against Copeland.
Cooper says he’s not satisfied with the investigation. Skouby, he maintains, has a conflict of interest and should recuse himself.
Both Copeland and Cooper agree on one thing: This is the only time they can remember where an attorney was denied a client meeting under the current administration at the Newton County Jail.
“As I’ve said all along,” Copeland said. “There was a miscommunication here with a road deputy and a corrections officer. Nothing was intentional or deliberate. We haven’t broken any laws.
“There is no reason that we would not allow an attorney to see their client. We follow the law, we enforce the law.”
The law gives defense attorneys access to their clients at any “reasonable time.”
“The only time it is unreasonable to visit your client,” Cooper said, “is if they’re having a riot in the back or if there was some emergency in the county that all the jailers had to leave. That’s the only time that I can imagine would be unreasonable.”
McDonald County Judge John LePage later issued a court order telling Copeland that regardless of staff or schedules he was to allow every defense attorney to see their clients within 30 minutes or it would result in his confinement. Newton County Presiding Judge Timothy Perigo modified the order to regular visiting hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with 24-hour call access and special arrangements for after-hour visits. The modified order reflects their current operation.
Cooper signed in at the jail at 4:20 p.m. on Dec. 9, during shift change and was asked to wait until the prisoners were fed. By 4:45 p.m., LePage had called Copeland who asked a road deputy to accompany Cooper on his visit. The road deputy came in, but a corrections officer told the deputy that they were waiting on a call from the sheriff and the visit never occurred.
“I honestly believe that the sheriff was intentionally blowing me off,” Cooper said.
Copeland said the incident has been blown out of proportion.
“People make mistakes,” he said. “But none of my people, including myself did anything to intentional or deliberately deny him access to his client.”
