Board creates public defender office, hires Charles Odgers

Setting the starting annual salary for the Carson City public defender at approximately $151,445, the Carson City Board of Supervisors on Thursday appointed Charles H. Odgers to the position.

The vote Thursday was unanimous and came after nearly 20 letters were sent to the Board of Supervisors from law colleagues around the state recommending Odgers for the position. One letter of recommendation was from Carson City’s First Judicial District Court and signed by Judges James T. Russell and James E. Wilson and Justices of the Peace Thomas R. Armstrong and Kristin N. Luis.

“I feel very confident in our selection of you as our new public defender, and I hope that what you said about family, you actually end up feeling the very same thing about Carson City. Because that’s what we think,” Mayor Lori Bagwell told Odgers.

Odgers had told the board he would run the office as if it were a family.

“That’s the way I’ve run every office I’ve worked in, including where I’m at right now in Douglas County,” he said. “I treat all of them as if they’re family members.”

Before the appointment Thursday, supervisors approved the second reading of an ordinance establishing the Carson City Office of the Public Defender, a roughly $2 million budget in the next fiscal year for the new office and a five-year lease of office space at 755 North Roop St.

The amount for the new budget will be offset by funds that were allocated to the Nevada State Public Defender’s Office as well as through reimbursement from the Nevada Department of Indigent Defense Services. The city had contracted with SPD for indigent legal defense services for 25 years before a staffing shortage at the state office this spring caused the city to seek its own office.

The new city office is estimated to employ up to 13 people, according to a staff report. Starting July 1, the public defender will serve at the pleasure of the Board of Supervisors and will be able to appoint deputy public defenders and other employees.

“It’s quite a task for the city to take this over,” said Supervisor Stacey Giomi. “But I’m excited because I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Odgers, a Dayton resident and veteran of the U.S. Marines, offered a wide-ranging resume, having worked for SPD, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office and the city of Ely. As a Marine reservist, Odgers served 10 months in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, earning a Navy Achievement Medal.

In 2012, Odgers was publicly reprimanded by the State Bar of Nevada for “entering into a business arrangement with a non-lawyer, engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and failure to communicate with client.” In 2014, he was disciplined by the Nevada Supreme Court, which oversees the state bar. A two-year suspension of law practice was stayed subject to Odgers’ compliance with the court’s conditions.

Thursday, Odgers talked about his life experiences, including the reprimand. Giomi asked him what his professional “do-over” would be if he had one.

“I’m not hiding from what I did. I never have, never will,” Odgers said, describing how a change in the state bar counsel at the time put him in a difficult position. “But it’s that decision that has made me do what I do today with the fervor that I do it with. I won’t ever, ever put myself or allow anybody else to put themselves that work for me in that type of ethical dilemma where we’re going to get ourselves in trouble and potentially lose our license. It doesn’t happen.”

Odgers said he wouldn’t have a do-over because everything he’s done — “good, bad or indifferent”— led him to Thursday’s meeting.

Supervisor Lisa Schuette asked Odgers how his life experiences will help him in the new role.

“One of the major problems that we are facing today, in the next two weeks, is opening up an office,” Odgers said. “Thanksgiving of 1990, I was activated for Desert Storm. I left my wife and four children that day … I landed in Okinawa on Christmas Day, and my job was to activate 1,500 reserve Marines to active-duty Marines. I had 30 days to do it, 30 days to get people paid, 30 days to get families taken care of.

“I accomplished that. I accomplished that. And as a result of that, I received a Navy Achievement Medal for doing so. It’s because I worked 24/7. It’s what has to happen.”

Applause erupted in the boardroom when Odgers was appointed. Before leaving, Odgers told supervisors he appreciated their vote of confidence.

“I won’t let you down,” he said.