Defense Attorney Shari T. Young 'Jumps Ship'-takes job with D.A.

As per TBPR: Attorney Young was not a Public Defender

Attorney Shari Tayloe Young

Defense Attorney Shari Tayloe Young, now a partner in the Cleveland Law firm of Crump, Richardson, and Young was appointed and accepted the task of representing Jessica Powers last March.

'Special judge' Walter C. Kurtz who was brought in from Nashville to preside over the trial, appointed Shari Young when the initial attorney from the public defender's Office, Jeanne Wiggins, asked to be allowed to step down due to a conflict of interest.

The Jim Miller murder case is arguably one of the most high-profile court cases in the history of Monroe County-- it can be in many ways, a 'career-making case.' When a local newspaper on 6/27/2011 described Attorney Young as a 'public defender' from Cleveland, who asked to be released from the case after she took a job in the Fifth Judicial District with the District Attorney's Office--it undoubtedly 'stirred the rumor mill' with questions of legal ethics. 

The 'spin on the facts' as to why Attorney Young asked to be removed as defense attorney is still unraveling, particularly when it has been learned Attorney Young is not stepping down from any other ongoing legal cases at Crump, Richardson, and Young.

If the Fifth Judicial District is not associated with the 10th Judicial District, and there is no conflict of interest--why step down as Powers' defense attorney? Why did she accept the case in the first place?....and then quit 4 months later while the case was still in the pre-trial stage?....

An email received today from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility has helped to clarify at least one of the questions raised: ......"What the newspaper labeled a public defender, and who is really a public defender are two different things. There is the Public Defender's Office and the attorneys that work there. When there is a conflict, the judge appoints a private attorney who is not from the public defender's office, but who is paid by the administrative office of the courts to represent a defendant who cannot afford legal counsel. If the attorney was working at a private law firm and was appointed, she was not really a public defender and does not work there." --end quote.

The defendant in the Jim Miller murder case is now on her 3rd court-appointed defense attorney. Knoxville-based Attorney John Eldridge is Jessica Power's new defense attorney--the case is still only in the pre-trial motions stage.