The commission overseeing Colorado’s Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel placed the agency’s embattled leader on administrative leave Thursday.
The move comes after attorneys in Colorado’s indigent defense community revolted against new executive director Joanna Landau in a two-hour public meeting on May 22, criticizing a culture shift she spearheaded in the small state agency that attorneys worry might undermine Colorado’s indigent criminal defense.
The nine-member volunteer commission announced Friday that it would launch an investigation into Landau. The commission followed that announcement Thursday morning with a public vote to place the executive director on paid leave during that investigation.
“At this point I think it’s really difficult for Joanna to do any kind of job that positively impacts the (agency),” said commission member John Ponikvar. “We need to get this job done. We still need to protect clients and provide services, and under this current circumstance, I don’t see how that’s possible.”
In an email to The Denver Post on Wednesday evening, Landau said she expected to be placed on administrative leave Thursday and that she supported the move. She previously told The Post she welcomed “an independent and impartial investigation” and framed the public discontent as expected pushback to change after she replaced a leader who’d spent two decades in the role.
“The investigation has my full support, and I will not challenge this decision,” Landau said in the email. “My greatest priority is supporting this team and the contractors doing the constitutionally critical work of representing our indigent clients. I am devastated that this situation has had a negative impact on our ADC work for clients.”
She concluded the email by noting that she would be at a Denver golf course frequently during her administrative leave.
“I will be on the city park (sic) golf driving range most days during this administrative leave from 10-12,” she wrote. “Maybe at the range or the cafe.”
She clarified her comment Thursday.
“The golf comment was meant to convey, instead of helping our clients, contractors and staff, this is all I can do now,” she said. “It is devastating not fun.”
The commission named the current deputy director of the , Darren Cantor, as acting executive director on Thursday. The group voted to put out a request for proposals Thursday for investigative firms to conduct the probe into Landau, and set a 5 p.m. Monday deadline for proposals to be returned.
The commission discussed balancing speed with a thorough and independent investigation.
“I do think we need to act quickly, but sometimes that can be our biggest regret,” said commission member Deborah Wilson.
The investigation will consider Landau’s performance, the workplace environment, specific written complaints about Landau, employment discrimination and information “put out to the public” that was inaccurate, the commissioners decided.
Landau has spent nine months at the helm of the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel, known as ADC. The 41-person state agency contracts with private defense attorneys to represent indigent defendants who cannot be represented by the Office of the State Public Defender, typically when public defenders have conflicts of interest.
The agency contracts with roughly 1,200 attorneys and support staff in such cases. About 200 people attended the May 22 meeting, in which nearly two dozen speakers expressed concerns about Landau’s leadership. At the core of the complaints was a sense that Landau’s top-down, arms-length approach to leadership was undermining a tight-knit indigent defense community, and that her focus on fiscal responsibility might limit the ability of attorneys to mount full defenses.
In an interview with The Post on Monday, Landau said she started the job by having “candid” discussions with current staff about problems at the agency and has used those conversations to guide the changes she has made. She defended her approach and said her actions have been aimed at improving the office.
