DOJ: McGuiness can apply for public defender

The Delaware Department of Justice fired back Oct. 18 at State Auditor Kathy McGuiness’s request for taxpayers to pay her private attorney, saying McGuiness can use a public defender or use her own money to pay for her defense on felony theft and other charges.

“It is sadly consistent with the defendant’s charged conduct that she would demand the taxpayers spend extra money when the law clearly commands a less profligate alternative. The law is clear, and for that reason we respectfully request that the defendant’s petition be denied,” the motion reads.

McGuiness filed a motion Oct. 14 asking the court to approve public payment of her $550-an-hour attorney, Steven Wood, who is representing her in the state’s case against her. McGuiness’s motion states that there is a conflict of interest in using a state attorney since the Department of Justice was involved in her eventual indictment on charges of felony theft, felony witness intimidation, and other misdemeanors of misconduct through her elected office.

McGuiness has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is out on $50,000 unsecured bond as the case winds through the court process.

If McGuiness uses a public defender, the motion states, it would cost about $100 an hour, but if she wants to use her own attorney, she should pay out of her own pocket. The motion calls McGuiness “independently wealthy by any standard” based on her $112,000/year auditor’s salary, and her Henlopen Acres home that Zillow estimates is worth as much as $3.7 million.

As an elected official, the motion states, Delaware law allows for McGuiness to be represented by a public defender, despite her high income.

“Perhaps cognizant of the clear statute, the defendant's petition never mentions [it]. She instead asks this court to appoint her chosen and retained private law firm as court-appointed counsel, and desires to shoehorn in hourly rates several times that of all this court’s appointed attorneys,” the motion states.

McGuiness filed a second motion Oct. 14, asking the court to sanction Attorney General Kathleen Jennings for comments she made while announcing McGuiness’s indictment, and to ban Jennings and employees of the AG’s office from all extrajudicial comments pertaining to McGuiness’s case.

A DOJ motion in regard to sanctions was not released as of Cape Gazette press time.