Monroe County Public Defender - Pennsylvania

07/20/2026

We're a little late to post, so please forgive us. There's just a lot 🤭

ANOTHER ACQUITTAL. ⚖️🏆
Congratulations to Assistant Public Defenders Bill Sánchez and Sarah Knight on their full jury acquittal in a felony second-degree strangulation case.
The Commonwealth's theory case centered on the allegation that our client strangled and hit the complaining witness while her daughters were in the house. Our client was also said to have punched the complaining witness in the face in front of her daughters.
But there was one glaring problem.
Before arresting our client, law enforcement NEVER. INTERVIEWED. the daughters. The same eyewitnesses the complaining witness claimed saw the assault unfold. Law enforcement also never spoke to our client to assess his version of events. Instead, they made an arrest without interviewing the only people who could immediately confirm or contradict the accusation. Our client spent ten months incarcerated as a result of these accusations.
Thankfully, at trial, the truth came out.
The daughters took the witness stand and testified that the alleged assault never happened. They also testified that the complaining witness was intoxicated the evening of the alleged assault and had a history of physically assaulting them while intoxicated. The complaining witness came across as resentful of the close relationship between the defendant and his daughters. It became clear that she was motivated by a desire to damage their relationship and that she abused the legal system to accomplish this.
When the jury heard all of the evidence, not just the accusation, not just one unsupported version of events, they returned the only verdict the facts DID support:

NOT GUILTY.⚖️🏆

Justice depends on complete investigations, credible evidence, and rigorous advocacy. Congratulations again to Bill Sánchez and Sarah Knight on an outstanding trial victory and for holding the government to its burden of proof. Thank you to our client for trusting us with his case and with his freedom.

07/18/2026

Oh, did y'all think we were joking about King Fred I, Attorney and Counselor at Law Supreme, Protector of the Indigent, Defender of Due Process, First of His Name 👑🤴🏻??? Consider this royal portrait THE ultimate Fred appreciation post. Thank you for your attention and for watching our page so closely!
We see you 💕

07/12/2026

This week brought us and the defense bar at large 3/3 jury trial wins this week against the Commonwealth! 🏆🏆🏆 (Yes, we won every case that went to trial 💅🏼💅🏻💅🏻).

Veteran Assistant Public Defender (and absolute king) Fred Cutaio won a DUI trial this week, where, during the traffic stop, law enforcement seems to have conflated our client's anxiety attack with clues of impairment and accused him of driving while under the influence. A jury did not agree and acquitted of the DUI!

Assistant Public Defender Sarah Knight won a full acquittal on an F2 Strangulation case where she showed the complaining witness altered the timestamps on the photos they provided as evidence to the government and demonstrated the witness engaged in a repeated and highly questionable pattern of seeking protection from abuse orders against our client and former partners. The jury did not find the government's witness to be credible and acquitted on all charges. This type of deeply concerning behavior is called litigation abuse among experts in the field of domestic violence behaviors. When a person/victim ends an abusive relationship, the abuser may try to keep power and control by misusing the court system against the victim. These actions combined with a failure to exercise higher prosecutorial discernment makes credible and actual victims of crimes more vulnerable and less likely to be believed, compromises the integrity of our justice system, and wastes taxpayer resources that should be directed to helping those who need it most. Thank you to Attorney Knight for standing up for our client's truth.

And in a win for the private defense bar, our very own Assistant Public Defender Martín Souto Díaz won a jury trial on a Recklessly Endangering Another Person count where the government claimed his client endangered the life of another person on an adjoining property — that the client was unaware was even there— by practicing target shooting into a homemade range on a 12-acre property.

Here's the best part: Attorney Souto Díaz, despite having 0 burden to do so, presented witness testimony that his client DID 👏🏻NOT 👏🏻EVEN 👏🏻 SHOOT 👏🏻 A 👏🏻FIREARM 👏🏻 THAT 👏🏻 DAY. (We know, this is what we deal with every day 🙄😒). A jury did not believe the government's narrative and acquitted!

Congratulations to the defense attorneys in these matters and of course to their clients! Thank you for trusting us with your cases! ✨🏆🏆🏆✨

07/10/2026

🗣️: AND AGAIN‼️‼️‼️🏆✨

In another appellate victory regarding a violation of supervision sentence, the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated our client's sentence in Commonwealth v. Johnson and remanded the case for new hearing after concluding that the Monroe County trial court improperly allowed hearsay testimony at the hearing that violated our client's confrontation rights.

The client's probation was revoked, even though she was not present for the hearing, and even though the evidence consisted entirely of hearsay that was not corroborated by any other source. Assistant Public Defender Jacob Hill raised and properly preserved objections for appeal at the hearing.

On appeal, Chief of Appeals Eric Closs argued that the hearing violated longstanding constitutional norms imposed by the United States Supreme Court. The Superior Court agreed, holding that there was "absolutely no corroboration" that the hearsay was reliable.

The Superior Court concluded that, due to this lack of corroboration, the hearing failed to meet minimum standards for the admission of hearsay evidence and the violation finding was therefore illegal. The court vacated the judgment of sentence and remanded the matter for a new hearing consistent with the law.

At the new hearing, the government ✨once again✨" failed to subpoena the necessary witnesses or to file a writ to secure the defendant at hearing."

This decision reinforces the constitutional protections for violations of probation that courts and the Commonwealth are required to follow in order to revoke a supervision sentence.

We are proud to protect our client's constitutional rights and the rights of all indigent defendants!

07/09/2026

Did we not say we'd be back with tales of ✨success✨ and ✨validation✨? Congratulations to Attorneys Verina Meawad and Eric Closs on this remarkable double whammy victory! 🏆🏆

TLDR; In a rare lower court and appellate victory, the lower court previously dismissed a felony Receiving Stolen Property charge due to a total lack of supporting evidence. The Commonwealth appealed the decision. The Superior Court then affirmed the decision of the trial court, finding the record lacked any evidence to support the conjecture that our client knew or had reason to know the property was stolen.

Complete tea 🫖✨:
In Commonwealth v. Domínguez Álvarez, our client was a tow truck driver who had been directed by his employer to tow a specific truck. He was towing the truck as directed by his employer when he was stopped by police. The truck had apparently been stolen from a parking lot two weeks earlier. This was unbeknownst to our client, who had not been involved in that theft AT ALL, but had only been performing his job that day. Our client had worked at that job for many years without issue.
The truck company owner, also testified and explained that our client knew nothing of how the truck was acquired and that he was simply acting at his direction. Unsatisfied, the Commonwealth's attorney made allusion to the Nuremberg defense, referencing the N**i war crimes trials in post-Hitler Germany.

(Yes, that's right. The government compared a defense to a property crime to the defense invoked by the perpetrators of the literal Holocaust 🫪🫠😵‍💫🙃).

The lower court dismissed the charges for lack of demonstrated guilty knowledge. The Commonwealth then appealed.

The Superior Court affirmed the court's dismissal of all charges. The Court noted that there was no evidence that our client had lied or in any way been involved in the truck's acquisition and that because "mere possession is legally insufficient to prove the guilty knowledge element of receiving stolen property, the Commonwealth failed to sustain its burden of establishing a prima facie case as to that offense."

The case was presented at the lower court by Assistant Public Defender Verina Meawad, who also conducted oral argument on the appeal. The appellate brief was written by Chief of Appeals Eric Closs.

07/04/2026

The dictionary has no business spitting bars like this. 🔥🔥🔥

Happy 250th to the United States of America. 🎆🇺🇸

Kidding- both are acceptable.

FWIW Noah Webster’s 1806 dictionary has ‘cancelled’, but in his 1828 edition the word is spelled as ‘canceled.’

07/03/2026

We write our own briefs, we promise. 😤😤😤

07/02/2026

Our office extends a warm congratulations to the 25 newest American citizens who became naturalized today at the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas. These brave folks hail from 16 different countries and chose to make their home in the United States, right here in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. May they forever feel the warmth of their new community and feel the sense of awe and duty that comes with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The United States is made stronger by all those who strive to live up to her founding principles.

07/01/2026

More exciting news from the PD's office! Please join us in welcoming our newest assistant public defender, Attorney Alex Barrett Dowland!

Attorney Dowland graduated with a B.S. in Economic Consulting and Public Policy Analysis from Indiana University in 2019, and earned his J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2022. During his time in law school, Alex was the president of the LGBTQ+ Project, which fought for legal rights and conducted name changes for LGBTQ+ individuals. Alex was also the lead research director for the Inmate Legal Assistance Project and assisted prisoners in filing habeas corpus petitions in federal court. In that capacity, Alex argued in front of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Dunn v. Neal, 44 F.4th 696 (7th Cir. 2022), which ultimately resulted in the release of Mr. Dunn who was wrongfully convicted of murder and held in prison for 11 years.
Alex is also a licensed attorney in Colorado and New Jersey. In Colorado, Alex worked for the Office of the State Public Defender as a Deputy State Public Defender. In New Jersey, Alex worked in a variety of practice areas, including tenant eviction defense, family law, civil litigation, and criminal law.

Pictured here is Alex's swearing in as a Pennsylvania attorney by the Honorable Judge David J. Williamson on June 25, 2026. 👑✨⚖️