Free Motion for Miscellaneous Relief - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender 2 District of Arizona 850 W. Adams, Suite 201 3 Phoenix, Arizona 85007-2730 Telephone: (602) 382-2751 4 KAREN M. WILKINSON 5 State Bar No. 014095 6 [email protected] Asst. Federal Public Defender 7 Attorney for Defendant 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 vs. Charles Edward Murphy, Defendant. United States of America, Plaintiff, IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA No. CR-03-50065-PHX-FJM MOTION FOR CLARIFICATION or, in the alternative, MOTION TO WITHDRAW

The government has filed an Application for Writ of Garnishment on the defendant Charles Murphy. Undersigned counsel moves for clarification of the Court's order dated October 25, 2005, specifically to clarify whether the Court's

19 previous appointment of counsel applies to this garnishment matter. To the extent the 20 Court considers counsel to still represent Mr. Murphy on this matter, counsel moves 21 to withdraw as attorney of record. In March 2003, the Court appointed the Office of the Federal Public 22 23 Defender (the "Office") to represent Mr. Murphy regarding modification of a 24 probation condition. The Court resolved that modification issue on August 18, 2004. 25 Mr. Murphy's term of probation expired on March 30, 2005. The government filed 26 its garnishment application on October 14, 2005, and served undersigned counsel 27 with a copy of the application. Undersigned counsel filed a Notice of Non28 Representation, arguing that service on counsel was ineffective because the Office no longer represented Mr. Murphy. The Court entered an order that counsel

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1 interpreted to provide that the Office did still represent Mr. Murphy. 2 Undersigned counsel filed a motion for reconsideration on October 27, 3 2005. A few days later, the government filed a Notice of Service of Documents on 4 Judgment Debtor. The Court subsequently denied counsel's motion for 5 reconsideration as moot, in light of the government's personal service on Mr. 6 Murphy. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Counsel is not clear at this point on whether the Court considers its prior appointment to carry over into this garnishment matter. To the extent the Court considers such representation to currently exist, counsel moves to withdraw for the following reasons: First, the government has personally served the defendant, so personal service is no longer an issue. Second, a garnishment matter is a civil matter, and there are serious questions as to whether the Criminal Justice Act even authorizes appointment of counsel in this type of matter. See 18 U.S.C. § 3006A. Finally, the time for an appeal of any criminal matter in this case has passed, and thus the Office is no longer "deemed responsible as attorney of record." See L.R.Civ. 83.3(a). For these reasons, undersigned counsel asks the Court to clarify whether

18 it considers counsel's prior representation to cover Mr. Murphy's current garnishment 19 matter, and if so, to allow counsel to withdraw. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 Respectfully submitted: November 18, 2005. JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender s/ Karen M. Wilkinson KAREN M. WILKINSON Asst. Federal Public Defender

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1 I hereby certify that on November 18, 2005, I electronically transmitted the attached document to the Clerk's Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal 2 of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the following CM/ECF registrants: 3 ELIZABETH WILSON 4 Assistant U.S. Attorney Financial Litigation Unit 5 405 W. Congress, #4900 6 Tucson, AZ 85701-5041 7 Copy mailed to: 8 CHARLES MURPHY 9 s/ E. Carranza 10 E. Carranza 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

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