The hearing over Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis’ future began in April with widespread curiosity from people seeking to gain insight into the unrest plaguing her agency for much of the last two years.
Now, ahead of Tuesday’s decision from the Public Defender Services Commission on whether it will discipline — or fire — Bowden-Lewis for accusations of workplace misconduct, legislators, advocates and outside experts are concerned about what they described in recent interviews as a lack of impartiality from the decision-makers, disrespect toward the state’s first Black chief public defender and a system set up for her to fail.
“I observed a level of hostility that supersedes work and a total disregard for process and law by people whose whole career is staked in process and law,” said James Jeter, director of the Full Citizens Coalition, an organization focused on undoing the harms of felony disenfranchisement.
“The interrupting, the calling her by her first name — I’ve never seen that,” said Alison Bloomquist, vice president for strategic alliances and innovation for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, who for six years worked in the Division of Public Defender Services as training director.
“Even if you don’t like her, even if you don’t agree with what she’s done, you have to be able to separate that stuff and be impartial,” said Democratic Rep. Robyn Porter, a member of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. “How do you get to talk to her and over her in such a manner, in such a tone, especially publicly — at all — but especially publicly? I think that was the big pill for me to swallow.”
Bowden-Lewis and members of the commission either declined or did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
The hearing, which transpired over two days in April, was the culmination of ongoing discord in the Division of Public Defender Services dating back to the 2022 appointment of Bowden-Lewis, who has served as a public defender in Connecticut for more than two decades.
TaShun Bowden-Lewis says hello to the public defender division staff one by one before an annual meeting. “Always, you can email me, you can talk to me, you can call me,” she said during her speech at the meeting. Credit: Yehyun Kim / CT Mirror
The South Norwalk native’s appointment as Connecticut’s first Black chief public defender was widely regarded as a historic milestone. Keenly aware of her position and influence early on, Bowden-Lewis grew increasingly vocal about her vision to diversify the mostly white agency, rebrand the division with a focus on community engagement, and revitalize the department to ensure that all people feel valued.
One of the first major signs of turmoil appeared when all but one of the five members serving on the volunteer Public Defender Services Commission, a politically appointed board of career attorneys and judges who select the chief public defender and oversee the agency’s functions, abruptly resigned with little explanation early last year.
Prior to the mass departure, there had been infighting in the division over the commission’s decision to bypass Bowden-Lewis’ preferred list of candidates for a job in Derby in favor of a white woman whom she viewed as less qualified.
The decision particularly struck a nerve with Black and brown employees, some of whom saw the move as part of a larger effort to undermine Bowden-Lewis and her goals. Bowden-Lewis was equally concerned about what was described as the “hyper scrutinizing and undermining” of her decisions, according to a letter sent from her attorney to the former commission chair.
I observed a level of hostility that supersedes work and a total disregard for process and law by people whose whole career is staked in process and law.
James jeter, full citizens coalition
But that wasn’t all. Employees also accused Bowden-Lewis of bullying people who did not agree with her and fostering a work environment where people avoided approaching her in fear of retaliation.
There was also a sense among some that Bowden-Lewis was more fixated on racial diversity than she was on addressing the needs of attorneys in the courtroom. The American Bar Association considers both components integral to public defense.
The appointment of a new commission did not improve the situation as many in the agency hoped it would.
The new panel placed Bowden-Lewis on paid administrative leave in February following recurring disputes between her and the panel, an official letter of reprimand from the board, and allegations that she improperly instructed a subordinate to access email accounts belonging to people critical of her. The disagreements resulted in a vote of no confidence in Bowden-Lewis among 121 unionized staff members of the more than 400 agency employees.
An independent investigation by the law firm Shipman & Goodwin also corroborated many of the earlier claims made against her, including that she marginalized employees who questioned her in any way, attempted to make working conditions intolerable to force at least one employee to resign, and ostracized and demoted another employee whom she did not prefer.
The report also noted that none of Bowden-Lewis’ conduct amounted to discrimination, harassment or an illegally hostile work environment under state or federal law, given the appearance that Bowden-Lewis did not take those actions based on a protected characteristic, such as race or gender. Nor did investigators identify any explicit ethical or policy violations.
TaShun Bowden-Lewis testified at a hearing over her future as chief public defender on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the Legislative Office Building. Credit: Jaden Edison / CT Mirror
The hearing in April encapsulated more than a dozen charges, many of which overlapped, including accusations of unethical and untruthful behavior, bullying and retaliating against people critical of her decisions, and unfairly levying claims of racism against her adversaries, all of which she and her attorney have denied.
Bowden-Lewis and her lawyer, former Bridgeport Mayor Thomas W. Bucci, have emphasized the Shipman & Goodwin conclusion that she violated no laws, while also arguing that any activity she engaged in fell under her authority as chief and that she is deserving of a chance to learn from and grow from her mistakes, similar to the opportunities afforded to her predecessors.
They also argued that the hearing was not an impartial proceeding, that the accusations against Bowden-Lewis are not just cause for discipline and that their participation in the hearing was not a waiver of any due process claims.
Supporters and loved ones of TaShun Bowden-Lewis during a hearing to determine her future as Connecticut’s chief public defender, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the Legislative Office Building. Credit: Jaden Edison / CT Mirror
Herman Woodard, an attorney who serves on the Public Defender Services Commission, at left, confers with Chairman Richard N. Palmer and attorney Michael Jefferson during a hearing over TaShun Bowden-Lewis’ future, Thursday, April 25, 2024, at the Legislative Office Building. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror
Bowden-Lewis requested that the commission conduct the hearing publicly, in part because she wanted people to witness the dynamic between her and the board. As a result, the first of the two meetings was packed with division employees, who were mostly white, while many of Bowden-Lewis’ supporters, most of whom were Black, sat either directly behind her or opposite the agency’s staff.
The room grew tense as some commission members exhibited irritation, raised their voice or cut off Bowden-Lewis, whom they on several occasions referred to by her first name during their exchanges with her. Some of the frustration stemmed from the fact that Bowden-Lewis did not answer their questions in the ways they hoped for.
Members of the public gasped, remarked or were visibly disturbed by the heated exchanges, namely with retired Connecticut Supreme Court Justice and Commission Chair Richard N. Palmer, Superior Court Judges Sheila M. Prats and Elliot N. Solomon, and attorney Michael Jefferson. On at least two occasions, the board asked onlookers in the audience to keep quiet.
If the hearing accomplished nothing else, it showed the friction between the commission and the chief public defender.
“Certainly, there’s a lot of stuff that’s made out in the press where I think I’m concerned about her judgment calls,” Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said in a recent interview. “But the hearing that I did watch, it’s unfortunate that there is such an adversarial interaction between the commissioner and her board.”
(From left to right) Sen. Marilyn Moore, Rep. Robyn Porter and Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, three members of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, during a hearing to help determine TaShun Bowden-Lewis’ future as chief public defender. Credit: Jaden Edison / CT Mirror
Members of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus — Democratic Sens. Patricia Billie Miller, Marilyn Moore and Porter — showed up to the hearing curious. They sat only a few feet away from Bowden-Lewis and the commission.
Miller declined an interview, but the other two said they left feeling alarmed by what they observed.
“I sensed, in that first meeting, anger coming from the commission,” Moore said. “And I would think, as attorneys, they wouldn’t have that bias or they would be more businesslike in their response to the questions and to the answers, but it seemed very personal.”
Porter said she was “taken aback” by the body language, temperament and tone of the commission and that it all indicated to her that there was “bad blood” between some members and Bowden-Lewis. She also noted that the way the commission treated Bowden-Lewis during the hearing is all too familiar for Black women in power who are committed to meaningful change.
That is of particular concern to Alaina Bloodworth, executive director of the Black Public Defender Association, a national organization committed to improving the quality of legal defense provided to low-income communities, who cited other examples in Alabama and Philadelphia of Black women in public defense facing intense scrutiny for not conforming to business as usual.
“It’s unfortunate that when you see these Black chiefs take these positions, and we’re excited, and we want to uplift them, and we want to support them, and, ‘Oh my God, there’s a first Black chief,’ and ‘Oh my God, this is amazing,’” Bloodworth said. “But now, when it pisses this judge off or this commission off, when it actually upsets people and it actually affects people personally, all of a sudden I think that the focus does not become the people that they were put there to protect. Now it becomes about people’s feelings and everything else.”
There are also questions about whether the state laws governing the division are in need of changes.
The commission approves decisions on the budget, the establishment of offices within the agency and personnel matters that the chief public defender deems necessary. The chief is required by law to administer, coordinate and control the division’s operations and is responsible for its overall direction and supervision.
The hearing that I did watch, it’s unfortunate that there is such an adversarial interaction between the commissioner and her board.
Vincent candelora, House minority leader
Bowden-Lewis has expressed feelings that the commission is hampering her ability to do her job effectively, while at least one lawmaker, Moore, has concerns that the commission’s authority is too broad. Connecticut is also largely out of step with the principles guiding public defense systems nationwide, which caution against the appointment of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials to commissions to ensure their independence.
Advocates and experts believe that understanding these dynamics is imperative to understanding the current conflict, noting that Bowden-Lewis’ vision for the agency goes far beyond what the commission is accustomed to. However, they struggle to envision a scenario where a white chief public defender runs into the backlash that Bowden-Lewis has faced.
“If you go to change any work environment, you create a hostile work environment because people do not want to fall in line; they don’t want things to change. That’s just a reality,” said Jeter of the Full Citizens Coalition. “So now it’s a question of, ‘Do I have the authority to build out my department as my predecessors have?’ And the overwhelming response from the committee was, ‘No, you don’t.’ And it wasn’t based on law. It wasn’t based on qualifications. It was based on the fact that she was a Black woman who wasn’t playing ball like they expected her to play ball when they gave her the job.”
Bloomquist, who previously worked as training director for the division, said the current situation is not shocking or surprising given the pushback she witnessed from people over conversations about race and equity during her time there.
“I served for two chiefs who also did things that were labeled as either aggressive or that they were unapproachable or that they didn’t let people in meetings or that they were policing their staff … and none of those people were dragged through the press or brought before the commission,” said Bloomquist, who is white. “It doesn’t shock me, but it also just really makes me sad that there’s this rift when we raise issues, when we want to talk about race. When there are people inside the division trying to do that, they’re the ones who get turned into being called bullies. They’re the ones who become the problem for seeing these things.”
There are few people with the knowledge that former Democratic Rep. Bill Dyson has gained about the division in recent years, having worked on the current and previous commissions and with multiple chief public defenders, including Bowden-Lewis. Candelora, who had appointing authority over Dyson’s seat, said he recently replaced him because he felt like it was time for change with all that had transpired in the agency.
When reflecting on the time since Bowden-Lewis’ historic appointment two years ago, Dyson is rather blunt. He said the first Black chief public defender has not gotten the support she needs, that there has been an unwillingness by the commission to carry out her vision and that race has played a major factor in all of it.
As the panel is set to announce on Tuesday whether it will discipline Bowden-Lewis, he sees the situation as an opportunity missed.
“This, in my estimation, had the resemblance of an attack mode, and she didn’t deserve that,” Dyson said. “I think we could have conveyed a better message to the public about the kind of work we do, what needs to be done and how we go about doing it. And we haven’t — we didn’t deal with any of that yet.”
TaShun Bowden-Lewis embraces one of her supporters, Thursday, April 25, 2024, at the Legislative Office Building. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror