{"id":1511229,"date":"2025-01-02T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1511229"},"modified":"2025-01-02T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T08:00:00","slug":"waste-of-the-day-highly-paid-boston-official-cant-afford-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/waste-of-the-day-highly-paid-boston-official-cant-afford-attorney\/1511229\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste Of The Day: Highly Paid Boston Official Can’t Afford Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waste Of The Day: Highly Paid Boston Official Can’t Afford Attorney<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

Topline: <\/strong>When Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson faces trial on public corruption charges, she\u2019ll have the help of a public defender meant for those who can\u2019t afford an attorney, the Boston Herald<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Anderson made $103,500 in 2023, according to payroll records at OpenTheBooks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Key facts: <\/strong>Anderson allegedly organized a kickback scheme that netted her thousands of dollars of federal and city funds. The FBI arrested<\/a> her in December, charged with wire fraud and theft. She has denied all wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Despite her decent public salary, Anderson said she is unable to pay for her own lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

ourt filings noted her \u201cpersonal financial difficulty \u2026 which included missing monthly rent and car payments, an impending $5,000 civil liability from the Ethics Commission, and incurring bank overdraft fees, which resulted from Fernandes Anderson maintaining low daily bank balances,\u201d according to the Boston Herald.<\/p>\n

Attorneys appointed by the Federal Defender Program earn $172 per hour<\/a> in non-capital cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with <\/em>the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Critical quote: <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s more than ironic that a woman who said she cared about the struggles of her constituents of limited means is taking money from the public coffers<\/strong> \u2014 money that could otherwise be used to help the very people she claimed to care about,\u201d said Wendy Murphy, an attorney and columnist at the Boston Herald. \u201cWith such a good salary she should have to at least contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background: <\/strong>While not all public defenders work with high-profile clients, many rake in huge profits from taxpayers. That\u2019s on top of the often lucrative salaries they can earn in their private practice.<\/p>\n

Federal defenders working on capital cases earn up to $220 per hour.<\/p>\n

Hourly rates vary at the state level. Court-appointed attorneys in Maryland can legally earn up to $164 per hour, more than any other state, though the Maryland Public Defender Office told OpenTheBooks their budget only allows them to pay $75 per hour.<\/p>\n

In New York, some lawyers are earning up to $428,000 per year from taxpayers while still earning a salary from their private firm, according to Buffalo News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>If Fernandes Anderson is guilty, she\u2019s already taken enough from taxpayers without billing them for her legal fees.<\/p>\n

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 01\/01\/2025 – 22:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/waste-day-highly-paid-boston-official-cant-afford-attorney<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waste Of The Day: Highly Paid Boston Official Can’t Afford Attorney Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: When Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1511230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1511230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}