Veteran defense lawyer appointed Riverside County’s new public defender
A Riverside County defense attorney who has beenpracticing law for 40 years — 10 of those years under county contract — wastoday named the county’s public defender.
Steve Harmon, 65, is slated to begin his duties before the end of thecurrent fiscal year, taking over management of an agency with a roughly $33million annual budget and 225 employees.
Harmon was hired by county CEO Jay Orr following a selection processthat began two weeks after the Nov. 7 departure of then-Riverside County PublicDefender Gary Windom, who had been in the position since 1999 and left amidallegations of internal conflicts.
Brian Boles, who formerly served as assistant public defender, wasappointed as the interim public defender and will continue in that role untilHarmon takes the helm.
“Steve is a fine attorney and will be a good leader for the publicdefender’s office,” veteran Riverside County Deputy District Attorney MikeHestrin told City News Service.
The two have known each other for 15 years.
“He’s very well respected by both the defense Bar and by prosecutors,”Hestrin added. “I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”
Harmon became a criminal defense attorney in 1972. In 2002, he andassociate Paul Grech formed Criminal Defense Lawyers Inc. and won an indigentdefense contract with the county that continues to this day. Under theagreement, CDL picks up felony and misdemeanor cases in which the Office of thePublic Defender declares a conflict.
CDL handled indigent defense cases in the entire western county regionuntil 2011, when the contracts were divvied up after criticism about how theyhad been awarded in the first place. CDL now handles cases in Murrieta andBanning, while the law offices of Virginia Blumenthal provides attorneys forindigent defense in the Riverside metropolitan area.
Harmon is a past president of the Riverside County Bar Association andhas represented clients in around 350 jury trials, including four death penaltycases.
His county salary will be $223,000 per year, plus benefits and a carallowance.
