STOPPING DECADE-LONG PRACTICE OF COERCING INDIGENT DEFENDANTS TO ENTER UNCOUNSELED GUILTY PLEAS 

Together with ACLU of Northern and Southern California, we represent United Farm Workers and residents of Kern County in a lawsuit against Kern County and the Kern County Superior Court for systematically coercing misdemeanor defendants to plead guilty at arraignment without counsel.

The County’s practice has denied critical constitutional protections to nearly 70,000 people over the last seven years. Many defendants accepted plea offers without understanding the charges, the strength of the case against them, the evidence, or the consequences of pleading guilty, including life-changing immigration consequences that an attorney would have advised them about. Black and Latino people were disproportionately impacted by the County’s process, through which prosecutors secured swift convictions and the Superior Court lightened its docket at the expense of constitutional rights.

After the suit was filed, Kern County changed some of its more egregious practices. For instance, it stopped locking the public out of misdemeanor arraignment proceedings and barred probation officers (rather than prosecutors) from formulating plea deals. But the County’s core practice—obtaining mass waivers of counsel from a roomful of defendants and pressuring them to plead guilty without counsel—remains in place.

“The constitutional right to counsel dates back to the founding of our country, and due process dates back to the Magna Carta. These are core principles in our society, and they are inconsistent with Kern County’s practice of obtaining mass waivers from a roomful of uncounseled defendants and pressuring them to plead guilty. We intend to shut these plea mills down.”
— BHB Partner Kory DeClark

Partner Organization: ACLU of Northern California and ACLU of Southern California

Important Documents: 

Media Coverage: ABC News – Bakersfield: ACLU sues Kern County over questionable plea deals