Public defender urges pay parity with county attorneys, warns of rising discovery and expert costs

Douglas County Public Defender Thomas Riley told the board June 2 that his office faces mounting costs from modern evidence management and emerging challenges to traditional forensic methods, and that salary disparities with the county attorney's office are making it harder to recruit and retain experienced lawyers.

Riley described a new Axon discovery contract used by Omaha Police Department and others that increased annual costs and migration to a platform the public defender's office must use in order to receive compatible discovery files. "Axon Premiere" and related services carry licensing fees and also introduce new workflows for translation and AI summaries; Riley said he does not rely solely on automated summaries and that increased platform costs were partly offset by a supplemental grant but still raised ongoing yearly expenses.

Riley also highlighted a steady increase in the need to hire expert witnesses to challenge or validate forensic evidence such as fingerprint comparisons, ballistics and digital forensics. He said expert costs and depositions were already above the public defender's current budget and asked for an increase to keep cases defensible in court.

On salaries, Riley cited Nebraska statute that assistant public defenders in counties without private practice should be paid the same as deputy county attorneys of comparable ability and experience. He presented examples from the county attorney pay scale showing several deputy county attorneys at materially higher pay levels than similarly tenured public defenders. "Our starting salary for new lawyers was [previously] $79k; comparison salaries in other counties have risen into the low‑to‑mid $80k range," Riley said. He asked the board to address the disparity to avoid losing experienced staff and to ensure the public defender can meet growing discovery and litigation demands.

Commissioners thanked Riley for a detailed presentation. No immediate action was taken; the item will be considered in the budget process and as part of broader county salary reviews.