Boot camp attorney seeking payment

August 28, 2007
David Angier

PANAMA CITY

Attorney Bob Sombathy tried to find answers Monday to questions about getting paid for his hundreds of hours of work on behalf of former boot camp drill instructor Patrick Garrett.

Garrett, 30, is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, on Jan. 6, 2006. Anderson collapsed during his first day at the Bay County Sheriff’s Boot Camp, and Garrett was one of the drill instructors who interacted with him before an ambulance was called.

A videotape of the incident shows drill instructors manhandling Anderson in an effort to get him to resume a run.

Garrett and seven codefendants are scheduled for trial beginning Oct. 2.

Sombathy is the court-appointed conflict counsel, meaning Garrett couldn’t afford to hire an attorney but couldn’t be represented by the Public Defenders Office either. One of Garrett’s co-defendants, Charles Enfinger, is represented by Deputy Public Defender Walter Smith, and two defendants in the same case cannot be handled in the same office.

Sombathy filed a motion on July 19 asking the state Judicial Administration Commission to pay the fees he already has accrued. The commission objected, and a hearing was scheduled for Monday to resolve the issue.

Sombathy is seeking $31,000 for 300 hours of work he has put into the case so far. A commission lawyer, Stephen Presnell, wasn’t ready for the hearing Monday and told Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet that Sombathy’s file had not been fully processed.

Presnell said he would move Sombathy to the “top of the pile” of payment requests and would have a response by the end of the week. Presnell said he was sure the request would be denied because it exceeds the statutory maximum payment.

A payment denial can be resolved by a hearing, and since Presnell said Sombathy’s request would be denied, Overstreet scheduled a hearing for Wednesday.

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with this case,” Overstreet told Presnell. “But there’s an extraordinary amount of discovery involved in the matter with eight separate defendants. There’s something like 25,000 pages of documents. The trial is coming up, and people need to get paid.”

Smith said Monday that expert fees in the case, for both the state and defense, could top $100,000.

The Panama City State Attorney’s Office is paying the bills for the prosecution even though the case is being handled by the Tampa State Attorney’s Office by special assignment.